Solomon Northup Become A Slave Analysis

A Film Reaction

How does Solomon Northup become a slave? How does be become free again? Unlike most victims of kidnapping for slavery, Solomon Northup was born a free man in the Northern United States. Northup lives with his wife and children, making a living as a musician. Shortly after his wife leaves for a trip, Solomon makes the acquaintance of two businessmen: Mr. Brown and Mr. Hamilton. These men present Solomon with a proposition for employment—playing the violin at their circus. While discussing the proposition at dinner, Mr. Brown and Mr. Hamilton poison Solomon with wine and sell him to a slave trader. After the kidnapping, Northup is beaten, given the title of a runaway slave from Georgia, then shipped South. To escape slavery, Solomon resolves to stay strong and take any

However, Patsy is despised by Mistress Epps, who views Patsy as a threat to her marriage—physically and verbally abusing her at any opportunity. The audience is able to experience the innocent and childlike nature of Patsy, as she makes dolls to play with in the grass, singing to them. When Patsy visits Mistress Shaw, a former slave now wife of a plantation own, the mistress advises Patsy to allow Epps to have his way with her in order to ease the burden of slavery. Eventually, Master Epps visits the slave quarters at night and brutally rapes Patsy, beating and strangling her as well. When Patsy returns late from Mistress Shaw’s on a Sunday, the jealous nature of Master Epps provokes him to anger and violently whips her. This extreme trauma causes Patsy to approach Solomon, begging him to assist her in suicide, to which he refuses. Toward the end of the film, the character of Patsy arches from a favored slave and valuable picker to a target of wrath and abuse. Her character is a testament to the cruelty and dehumanization of slavery in the