ipl-logo

12 Years A Slave Summary

868 Words4 Pages

I. Introduction “12 Years a Slave” by Solomon Northup is an in-depth, fresh, personal perspective on slavery. The narrative, as told by Northup, examines the tale of how a free man became enslaved and the monstrosity that is slavery. The popular novel draws upon personal experience to illustrate the daily life of a slave.
II. Author’s Purpose, Documentation and Research, Bias The purpose of writing “12 Years a Slave” was to educate the public on the realities of slavery and remind readers that no black person was free during that time period. This memoir is both the study of a narrow subject and of a large time period. While most of the book is the telling of the grim life of a slave, the institution of slavery itself is touched upon. By …show more content…

There are no major gaps in the timeline and is remarkably detailed. While no visuals are used to help the reader visualize the scene, Northup’s words alone describe the area as well as any graphic. While detailed, the work is not incomprehensible to the average reader. The language is typical, yet sophisticated. While information about slavery is common knowledge, it is not required to understand this text This book can easily be understood by anyone with a middle school reading level. The logical organization coupled with it being easy to understand, clearly shows the text’s main point. Northup’s point is that anyone can be taken into slavery. Freedom, for black people in those times, meant nothing. Free or not, it only took one person for someone to become a slave. This is a point, society most often forgets. It is deemed that once a slave earned their freedom, they could not be touched. It is forgotten that at any time, a white person could claim someone is a slave. As it was a white person’s opinion against someone deemed subhuman, the accuser was always believed. This too often forgotten point is what Northup drives into the …show more content…

Solomon Northup did not write any other books before his death. Despite the book being a best seller and award winning movie, Solomon Northup did not personally receive any awards for his work. Overall, the book was a success and it is evident as to why. The captivating, riveting tale of kidnapping, the life of a slave, and escape keeps the reader on their toes. The sophisticated, yet easy to understand language made the book stimulating. Everyone needs to read this book. Too often, slavery is seen as a blimp in American history. It is summed up to “that was horrible” and subsequently forgotten by students. “12 Years a Slave” takes an often forgotten narrative and makes it unforgettable. My view on slave’s loyalty to each other was completely changed. Previously, I believed that slaves ratting each other out was an uncommon experience. There seemed to be no need to eat one another out because it would not change their situation. Northup reveals that many slaves are so brainwashed, they believe they can help their situation by ratting out other slaves. This is a book filled with information that can help everyone become more educated on one of the most treacherous times in American

Show More
Related

Summary Of David Oshinsky's Worse Than Slavery

1278 Words | 6 Pages

Worse than Slavery, by David Oshinsky, is a novel about post-Civil War America, and the life it gave free African Americans in Mississippi and other parts of the South. Oshinsky writes about the strict laws and corrupt criminal justice system blacks faced after they were freed, and while the contents of the book are not typically read about in history textbooks, it is important to understand what life was like for the freedman. Anyone interested in reading his book would profit from it. With the end of the Civil War came the destruction of the old system of slavery. Many white Southerner’s were outraged, but were forced to accept the newly freed blacks.

Read More

Summary Of City Upon A Hill Farm

1434 Words | 6 Pages

This book is what gives us the background knowledge needed to really understand the content we receive in the course. One of the ways it aligns with the content is that education on slavery in the south side is always given but we tend to forget that slavery existed in the north as well. We hear about southern plantation owners, southern slavery and everything happening there but we do not often hear about the slavery that existed in the north. This is also the time in which the “seasoning” period was seen. The “seasoning” period was seen as a time in which the slaves who were seen as “the best” were sent off to the Caribbean where here they were traded with sugar, and tobacco.

Read More

Marcus Rediker The Slave Ship

552 Words | 3 Pages

The Slave Ship, by Marcus Rediker was wrote in 2007 about the cruel and brutal actions the slaves endured on their journey across the Atlantic Ocean. He states, “this has been a painful book to write, if I have done any justice to the subject, it will be a painful book to read.” Marcus Rediker accomplished exactly that. This book was not only compelling but emotional, heartbreaking, and makes a reader think, how could someone be so cruel to another living being. Within the first couple pages, the book brought me to tears.

Read More

Ap Euro Dbq Essay On Slavery

1016 Words | 5 Pages

There is still such a false concept floating around about slavery, even in the twenty-first century. I enjoy reading articles and documents, like the ones provided for this essay, to properly give me an idea of what slavery was like when our ancestors were around. Slavery, even today in schools, is not taught how it should be. Many people, especially in the South, try to ignore slavery as if it never existed, when it is definitely a part of our history. I think there is a falseness, on both ends of slavery, that many people do not talk about; these documents showed me just that.

Read More

Notes On The State Of Virginia Essay

696 Words | 3 Pages

America is a country with historical scars that will never truly heal as racial tensions continue to gradually increase. However, these tensions often lead back to the establishment of the United States and its origins, which was slavery. The anger of many African Americans is the result of years of oppression and submission. To understand the oppression and submission that African labor have experienced, Thomas Jefferson’s “Notes on the State of Virginia,” from 1781, discussed how slavery challenges the morality of humanity and its ethics. In addition, the “Rules of Highland Plantation,” by Bennet H. Barrow from 1838, not only supports the perspective of Jefferson, but also provides a glimpse of how slaves were subjugated by their masters

Read More

Antebellum Louisiana Slavery

1095 Words | 5 Pages

The writer does not hide his contempt for those slaveholders characterized as “blood-seeking wretches.” (Twelve Years a Slave 125) Such slaveholders as Tibeats and Edwin Epps, another ruthless plantation owner, who buys Solomon from Mr. Williams, fall exactly into such a category. Nonetheless, soon Northup admits that his life on Epp’s plantation proves to be even worse than working with Tibeats. The writer notes that Epps never spares his whip to extract obedience from the “niggers.” Moreover, “being fond of the bottle” and various violent amusements, Epps repeatedly makes his slaves dance for him in the middle of the night or lashes them around his yard with his whip “just for the pleasure of hearing them screech and scream.”

Read More

Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Analysis

935 Words | 4 Pages

An American Slave,” Douglass discusses the horrors of being enslaved and a fugitive slave. Through Douglass’s use of figurative language, diction and repetition he emphasizes the cruelty he experiences thus allowing readers to under-stand his feelings of happiness, fear and isolation upon escaping slavery. Figurative language allocates emotions such as excitement, dread and seclusion. As a slave you have no rights, identity or home. Escaping slavery is the only hope of establishing a sense of self and humanity.

Read More

12 Years A Slave Odyssey

637 Words | 3 Pages

The novel “12 Years A Slave”, written by Solomon Northup depicts Solomon, a free man living in Saratoga New York with his wife and three children. One day he is offered a job playing violin with a circus group, and is kidnapped and sold into slavery. Northup is freed 12 years later by an abolitionist working on a plantation with him. While enslaved he meets a woman named Patsey. Their master, a man known as Epps, has a complete infatuation with Patsey, and shows how many slave owners develop an obsession over the “ownership” of their slaves.

Read More

Literary Devices In The Underground Railroad

1642 Words | 7 Pages

From this, derives a bond with the reader that pushes their understanding of the evil nature of slavery that society deemed appropriate therefore enhancing their understanding of history. While only glossed over in most classroom settings of the twenty-first century, students often neglect the sad but true reality that the backbone of slavery, was the dehumanization of an entire race of people. To create a group of individuals known for their extreme oppression derived from slavery, required plantation owner’s of the South to constantly embedded certain values into the lives of their slaves. To talk back means to be whipped.

Read More

Violence In Solomon Northup's Twelve Years A Slave

729 Words | 3 Pages

In regards to the abolitionist movement, Solomon Northup’s slave narrative was particularly important because it revealed the inhumane treatment, such as the brutal beatings done by masters and overseers, the sexual use of slave women and the merciless separation of families, and in his personal case the abuse of the Fugitive Slave

Read More

Solomon Northup

759 Words | 4 Pages

12 Years a Slave is a memoir of Solomon Northup filmed with passion and conviction giving the viewer heartache and an addition to the many other perspectives that we already know of slavery, another lingering thought of how ghastly the method of slavery really was is added to our

Read More

Frederick Douglass Reflection

200 Words | 1 Pages

In the United States, we are taught the many accounts of slavery but we never hear the perspective of a slave telling his tale. We always hear second accounts of slavery, but they never experienced the beatings and slashes a slave experienced. Fredrick Douglass was a slave and fought for his freedom until the very end. The narrative after you start reading, you won’t be able to put the book down, nor go to sleep since the book offers so much. This book is an excellent source of learning about slavery since you learn on a first account basis.

Read More

Compare And Contrast Django Unchained And 12 Years A Slave

1489 Words | 6 Pages

It tells the tale of Solomon Northup, a free black man living in New York. Solomon is abducted and spends the next 12 years working as a slave. In this essay I will be talking about the similarities and differences between the text, as well as the significance of the text, the audience, purpose and stylistic and formal features (filmic devices). First of all, the similarities between the two films. There are a number of components that are similar.

Read More

What Is The Second Annual Report Of The American Society For Colonizing The American

835 Words | 4 Pages

Barker, Joseph. Interesting Memoirs and Documents relating to American Slavery. London: Chapman, Brother, 1846. Reprinted from a copy in the Negro Collection of the Fisk University Library. Mnemosyne Publishing, Inc., Miami:

Read More

12 Years A Slave Movie Review Essay

2328 Words | 10 Pages

Review about 12 Years a Slave 1. Introduction 12 Years a Slave is a 2013 period drama film and an adaptation of the 1853 slave narrative memoir Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, a New York State-born free African-American man who was kidnapped in Washington, D.C., in 1841 and sold into slavery. Northup worked on plantations in the state of Louisiana for 12 years before his release. The first scholarly edition of Northup 's memoir, co-edited in 1968 by Sue Eakin and Joseph Logsdon, carefully retraced and validated the account and concluded it to be accurate. Other characters in the film were also real people, including Edwin and Mary Epps, and Patsey.

Read More

More about 12 Years A Slave Summary

Related Topics

Open Document