Prejudice And Racism In Twelve Years A Slave

To imagine having lived in freedom only to be sold into slavery, it's terrifying. In the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup is a free black man, a dedicated father and husband, as well as a successful and passionate violinist who is living in upstate New York. Twelve Years a Slave is a film based on a true story showing Solomon’s fight for survival and freedom. After him being abducted and sold into slavery, he is deprived of his identity, removed from his family and faces cruelty and abuse constantly. Not only does he struggle to stay alive, but to retain his dignity. Despite all this, he is never broken, he never gives up on the idea that one day he will be free once again. Hope seems to be the only thing that keeps him holding on

They emerged and became apart of the main ideas of society in the context of the African slave trade at the beginning of capitalism in the 1500s and 1600s. Karl Marx was one of the sociologist who described how modern racism was created. Marx connected that the role of the slave trade in the uprise of capitalism to the social connections that made racism against Africans. In the book, “Wage Labour and Capital” that was written 12 years prior to the American Civil War. Marx explains “What is a Negro slave? A man of the black race. The one explanation is as good as the other. A Negro is a Negro. He only becomes a slave in certain relations. A cotton spinning jenny is a machine for spinning cotton. It only becomes capital in certain relations. Torn away from these conditions, it is as little capital as gold by itself is money, or as sugar is the price of sugar.” This writing shows that Marx has no prejudice towards blacks, he displays how the economic and social relations of growing capitalism pushes blacks into slavery, “he only becomes a slave in certain relations.” ("The Roots of Racism." The Roots of Racism. International Sociologist Organization, 21 Oct. 2010. Web. 23 Jan. 2017.) Another social scientist was Margaret Mead, she believed that no one is born prejudice, it is a learned behavior. Hating a person or a certain category of people must be taught. We see this in the film when Solomon is gestured with an unexpected act of kindness from Master Ford. Master Ford gives Solomon a fiddle, this gesture is shocking to the viewers because it is not expected from someone who has assumably grown up learning to hate slaves. (Popova, Maria. "Margaret Mead on the Root of Racism and the Liability of Law Enforcement." Brain Pickings. N.p., 17 Sept. 2015. Web. 23 Jan. 2017.