The film, “12 Years A Slave” is a eye opening, perfect picture painted story of how slavery in the slave states was a cruel and sickening part of our American history. The story follows a once free black man named Solomon Northup, a successful violinist with a family gets abducted and forced into the slave trade and sold at auction. The events that happen throughout the movie elaborates the brutality of slavery on blacks, it shows the effects of slavery on slaves and also slave owners, it also depicts women both black and white are subject to authoritative treatment. “12 Years A Slave” can be analyzed in serveral different ways including several different topics. It shows of course how awful the treatment was but also proves that the …show more content…
A excellent film, with a perfect cast to portray this beautiful image. Mostly, what surprised me was the sympathy and caring that the owner of the plantation, Master Ford had for the slaves. The film made it a point it show how the other masters to the slaves were perfect examples of everything you’ve ever learned about slaveholders in the south but also some had a more lenient generous side like Master Ford. Inaddition, the man that the slaves are taken to when the crops aren’t producing is just as generous as Mr. Ford. He offers Solomon a paid job to play the fiddle, in which he kept all the wages. That surprised me the most owing to the fact that in that type of society where white males are dominant, and a white male acts upon the social norms that society creates and commits a deviant action. He will be sanctioned for what he did. It’s surprising that a dominant figure would act out of the constructions of society like that.
“12 Years A Slave” aims to purposely explain the inhumanities to slaves due to the southern beliefs and way of life. With all the images of cruelty and savagery that took place over the course of this film it makes you believe that no one should be an object nor be a property of another, every person must be equal among themselves and no one shall be enslaved nor harmed. The equality for all, white and black, females and males to all live in
The book 12 Years a Slave follows the story of Solomon Northup, a free man that was sold into slavery in 1841. The work describes his inner most thoughts and feelings as he finds himself being beaten and forced to work. He is given a new name that robs him of his identity and pushes him to forget about his freedom in New York as well as the family that he left behind. The book discusses the depth of slavery and what went on in Solomon’s twelve years of entrapment. It also explores the lives of other slaves and how they were treated by their masters. Throughout the book, these characters demonstrate the ups and downs of slavery as well as the reality of being held captive. Overall, Solomon Northup's book depicts the diversity in tasks and treatment
Twelve years a slave is the title of a book and a movie which was an adaptation of the life of Solomon Northup. Solomon Northup was born in New York a free man. He had a wife and three children, he unlike most other children was educated.”Besides giving us an education surpassing that ordinarily bestowed to the children in our condition” he said page 25, he had a farm and worked as a violinist. He was drugged, abducted and sold into slavery in 1841 while on a visit to Washington, sold at auction and shipped to work in cotton plantations in Louisiana. He was given a new identity and his slave name was “Platt.” he never accepted being
The movie 12 Years a Slave, is an exceptional film. It shows how brutal and inhumane American Slavery is. The movie itself is shockingly truthful as to the events that actually happened. There were many scenes that made it hard to not look away from the screen. Along with numerous scenes of trying to hold back tears. This movie is filled with heartache, sorrow, pure utter violence, but also love. There were many amazing actors and actress’ in this movie. Altogether, this film was brilliant. In fact, it has won many awards. Including, an Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress, Best Writing Adapted Screenplay, and many more outstanding awards. This movie is brutally honest, but well deserved. A free-man was
This novel was a very long and strenuous read. Solomon included many details about the process of planting and harvesting cotton or the appearance of a man from head to foot, for example. This painted an extremely accurate picture in the reader’s head, however it made the story boring and slow. There were also a lot of old-fashioned words that I had to look up before I understood sentences. Although the novel was slow and old-fashioned, I would recommend this book to students who wished to learn more about this time period because it certainly helps certain aspects easier to comprehend. Twelve Years a Slave gave me a different perspective to slavery, and a different way of viewing it.
Under the false pretenses that he would be home before his family’s return, Solomon left with Hamilton and Brown for his new job as a violinist in a circus without leaving a note for his wife or children telling them where he would be. Because of this, Solomon would devote a large amount of his life while enslaved to attempting to inform his family of his condition. His good intentions would lead to trouble for him throughout his life. From trying to inform James Burch, the slave dealer, of his former life, or asking a fellow slave named Armsby to transport a letter his family for him, Solomon’s attempted involvement with his family typically got him physically punished. Ultimately, the thought of being reunited with his wife and children would outweigh the negative consequences he suffered and would pay off when he became reunited with his family in 1853. Family gave him, as well as many other men in his situation, a reason to keep fighting for his
In this film we see how indentured slaves and enslaves from Africa and Europe were nonetheless exploited. It was then that the Dutch wanted to make more money by free labor and in that were described as the first 11 enslaved men to arrive in New Amsterdam by the Dutch West India Company. These men are described in this film to be the backbone of New Amsterdam alongside the indentured men because they created the infrastructure. As the number of slaves grew, their chance at freedom was also still on the table when they received half freedom. Although it wasn't complete freedom it was a gateway towards that. But soon after Blacks received their freedom, the film described it to be worse than being a slave. Some examples they mention were John Punch, and Frances Driggus. After this point, to be a Black slave their situation was worse because slavery was now legal in New York and Maryland. The film expressed that now from around 1700's to 1800’s slavery was now a race-based institution. More and more slaves bought through cargo because more slaves equaled more capital. To this point, slaves were auctioned as property and several of those taken from their homeland by cargo were thrown off a ship to the ocean. The Government was not mad at the fact that this was wrong against humanity, but over the smell of the dead that washed up
It was a very eye opening movie that made me rethink slavery. The director does an incredible job of making the movie historically accurate and seems to show all angles of slavery. I feel like I learned the way that slaves were treated. They were seen as property, but not valuable property. Slaves were also judged on more than how strong they were. A smart slave could be seen as just as valuable as a strong slave. The last thing that I learned from this movie is that not all of the slave owners and their workers are cruel to the slaves. Some were respectful and kind to the slaves as long as the slaves worked hard and showed
After reading Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, it is clear to see the true horrors behind the entirety of slavery. It is one thing to learn about it from a textbook or to sit through a lecture, but it is a completely different experience to get an account of how grossly inhumane, frightening, and appalling slavery really was from someone who experienced the terrors first-hand. Reading this narrative provided extremely descriptive details of how slaves truly were treated. Douglass recounted the time where he had often:
Since Northup wrote this book himself, it was able to provide readers with the truth and the experiences of living as a slave in the South. The good experiences written about by Northup seemed to be few and far between in the story, but the moments were big. In the beginning of the story, he talked about being with his family and the experience of being a free black man in the North. Once his freedom and family were taken from him, the next good experience he spoke of was when he met friends, either on the boat rides or on the plantations. These friends, although he was once free and most of them were not, had many things in common with Northup, and they all had similar views on slavery. A third positive experience that Solomon wrote about was when the officials came to Ebbs’ plantation to take him back North to freedom, which Ebbs could not believe. Although Ebbs wasn’t happy about it, Solomon was excited to go back to the North and his family. Being reunited with his family after ...
To understand the desperation of wanting to obtain freedom at any cost, it is necessary to take a look into what the conditions and lives were like of slaves. It is no secret that African-American slaves received cruel and inhumane treatment. Although she wrote of the horrific afflictions experienced by slaves, Linda Brent said, “No pen can give adequate description of the all-pervading corruption produced by slavery." The life of a slave was never a satisfactory one, but it all depended on the plantation that one lived on and the mast...
Have you ever wondered about what people went through during slavery for a long period of time? In 12 Years a Slave, it talks about a certain person’s point of view and their history. 12 Years a slave is one of the most detailed slave narratives that was written by Solomon Northup and published in 1853. When the book got published, it brought many problems, since it named several slave owners and the things that they would do with their slaves. The purpose of the book was to fight slavery and terminate it completely, not only that, also to expose those who supported slavery and to show what actually happened throughout the twelve years.
Solomon has the good luck of purchase by William Ford who through these writings portrayed as a good master. Eliza, another slave the Ford purchases, has a daughter named Emily. Ford sees the agony Eliza is in over the separation from her child and is willing to buy her even though he does not need her. Freeman refuses all offers for the child but buys Eliza knowing that she will be separated from the child whether he buys her or not. On their trek to Master Fords home he allows them the opportunity to sit and rest when needed. Ford, who is on horseback, understands and has compassion for his slaves who must make the journey on foot. On the way, they stop at homes where the slaves receive proper amounts of good food and given good opportunities to rest. Master Ford seems to look on his slaves as humans more than animals.
In the Following essay I will explore and develop an analysis of how the movie Twelve Years A Slave produces knowledge about the racial discourse. To support my points, I will use “The Poetics and the Politics of Exhibiting Other Cultures” written by Henrietta Lidchi, a Princeton University text “Introduction: Development and the Anthropology of Modernity” and “Can the Subaltern Speak?” by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak.
12 Years a Slave is a very iconic movie about Solomon Northrup and his being kidnapped into slavery. Northrup was a free man, a professional violinist, and a farmer. After being drugged, he was shipped away from his family and forced to work in New Orleans. During his slavery, he was forced to pick cotton and endure many hardships for 12 years. Eventually, he was freed and returned to his family. The people who captured and enslaved him served no punishment for their crimes since blacks were not allowed to sue white people at that time. Solomon was stripped of all his rights not only as a human, but also as an American and was illegally put into slavery for 12 years.
...e he missed in hardship. Throughout the book, the author Solomon Northup created Solomon Northup, the main character as a very friendly person. The way he described Northup’s journey, the reader can feel sympathy for him. Solomon Northup race, being black, an important role. He is mistreated because he was black. His narrative served as an important cultural symbol of slave life on southern plantations during antebellum America. There is not much described about his physical appearance, but readers can definitely say that he has a beautiful heart. If you ask me, I think Solomon Northup is not less a hero.