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12 Years A Slave Essay

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Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup
The nonfiction book I read over the summer is Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup. Over the summer, I was at home with nothing to watch on T.V. While I was scrolling through channels, I noticed that the movie adaptation of the book was on T.V. I decided to watch it to see whether or not it was good. The movie was so emotionally captivating to me that I decided to read the book to get a deeper understanding and more in-depth account of Solomon Northup’s life as a slave for twelve years.
I found Northup very admirable throughout the book. He never gave up and constantly was showing how terrible slavery truly was. While many of the slaves he was with had accepted the situation they were in, Northup …show more content…

The book does not sugarcoat the difficulties and hardships of being a slave. My school textbooks taught me that slaves were whipped and mistreated, but they had never went into the depth that Northup had. I was heartbroken reading about the reality of slavery. When Northup recounts the lives of slaves he was on the plantation with, you get a perspective of how everyone on the plantation was being abused, whether it be emotionally, sexually, or physically. While this all was very saddening to me, I understood that it was important to include these hardships. I think Northup had to go in-depth about the reality of slavery in order for more people to become aware of how bad slavery was. Another reason I think every school should have students read this book is because it recounts slavery from two different ends. Northup’s short time on Ford’s plantation showed that some slave owners were not brutal and unkind to their slaves. However, the nine years spent on Epps’ plantation showed the brutality of some slave owners.
Twelve Years a Slave is a powerful book highlighting the saddening reality of slavery and is a journey towards salvation. We see Solomon Northup being taken away from his family and sent to live a harsh and difficult life as a slave. Despite this, he continues to persevere and ends up being reunited with his family,, which is by far the best part of the book. Northup recounts the side of slavery many of us are

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