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12 Years A Slave Research Paper

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Recommended: Slavery during the american civil war

Twelve Years a Slave is an incredible movie capturing true events that happened during slavery before the Civil War. The main character Solomon Northup was born into freedom in
New York. However, he would soon find out that his freedom would be short lived. Traveling south for business, Solomon was drugged and sold into slavery. Solomon was forced to take on the slave name “Platt”- a name that he would be recognized by for the next grueling 12 years. Twelve Years a Slave not only portrays Solomon’s life as slave, but details how physically and emotionally abusive the environment was for the other slaves. The gruesome and torturous details were shown throughout the movie and really showed what is was like to live at this plantation. Despite the awful events that took place throughout the film, it’s a testimony to Solomon’s bravery, dignity, and hopefulness to survive and one day be freed.
Twelve Years a Slave was an emotional and impactful movie to watch. I really enjoy watching movies based on true events and this did not disappoint. The entirety of the movie did an excellent job detailing historic cultural events during the 1840’s. I have read the book, however, …show more content…

When comparing this to other slavery movies like Lincoln and Django Unchained, this movie showed the surrealism of beatings that occurred, the belittle meant, and hardships these people had to deal with on a day to day basis. It captures the physical and emotional imprisonment they felt daily which made it uncomfortable to watch. I feel like a lot of people would not watch this for that reason- because they do not want to feel uncomfortable or do not want to face the facts that this story is true and actually happened to thousands of people. Racism is still a prevalent topic to this day, and I believe that factors into the uncomfortableness I felt when watching this

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12 Years A Slave Journal Entries Prompt 1: Setting In 12 Years A Slave Solomon Northup or “Platt” as portrayed in the book is a free black man that lived in New York. Solomon was married to Anne Northup and had three kids: Elizabeth, Margaret, and Alonzo. Northup worked as a multifaceted laborer and also played violin, being very skillful and talented at it. He was offered to play at a circus being able to make good money.

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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.”

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The film 12 Years A Slave is a great demonstration of how slaves were treated and what they endured. The character I choose to focus on is Patsey was a joyous light hearted girl who was the fastest most productive cotton picker on the plantation. Her work ethic was a blessing and a curse and she was punished for many things. There are three main causes for her mistreatment. She was attractive because of her work ethic, she was disliked by the mistress and she begins to have suicidal thoughts.

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In his article, Inside The Most Unforgettable Scene In 12 Years A Slave, Adam B. Vary wrote that “Sometimes there are movies, or scenes, or even just brief moments, that we cannot shake, that sear themselves so fully to our synapses that not only do we know we will never forget them, but we wonder how on Earth the people who made them possible could have survived them.” This is the exact feeling I get anytime I watch the whipping scene in the movie, 12 Years a Slave. The scene begins at 1:47:00. It was set outside slave master, Edwin Epps’s plantation showing many slaves. In the scene, plantation owner, Edwin Epps forces Northup (also known by his slave name which is Platt) to whip his fellow slave Patsey for leaving the plantation to find soap.

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It is a movie about an African American slave who is free but then kidnapped and once again released after being enslaved for an extra 12 years. The movie has a few scenes that are very harsh with one showing the enslaved Solomon hanging and barely being able to put his toes on the stoop. Honestly 12 Years A Slave is nothing like Lincoln movie, but both are good starts to get a gist of black history. My future is not my past, when I opened up this paper I mentioned that black studies is based on education of self to gain power. In my future, as a black female, I want to be able to sit my children down and explain to them the things that I have learned and also the importance of learning your history.

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‘12 Years a Slave’ is an eye-opening film that displays incredible themes and ideas throughout it. As the movie follows a man named Solomon, who is captured as a slave, the director, Steve Mcqueen uses an array of camera techniques, dialogue and fascinating characters to make these themes come to life. In two particular scenes, the idea that males feel they have the right to use women however they desire attracts the attention of the audience. This is because the female slaves have to endure not only difficult labour tasks for their masters, but also being used as sexual objects frequently. One of the techniques the director uses in the scene, in which Master Epps is counting up how much cotton each slave has picked, is dialogue.

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