. Slavery was ongoing for many years, which ruined many people’s lives. White people believed that African-Americans were inferior. The slaves were forced into labor, punished, and treated poorly. Slaves involvement took away the most important thing in human life, freedom. During this time there were many influential slaves. Solomon Northup, an African-American slave who was kidnapped and sold into slavery was one of them. He is one of the world’s most important historical figures. Northup is known world wide for the movie and book based on his biography, 12 years a slave. By publishing the unbearable aspects of his life in captivity as a slave, Northup brought to light the sadism of American slavery. He raised awareness in audiences, and brought national attention to the injustices. Solomon Northup was born in July 1808, in Minerva, New York. Northup grew up as an educated and literate free African-American. He lived a …show more content…
He shared his experiences and lectured about abolitionist movement. His goal was to build momentum against slavery. Solomon’s death remains unknown. Around 1863 Solomon disappeared and was never heard from again. Despite Solomon’s disappearance, in 1984 Northup 's memoir was adapted and produced as a television movie called Solomon Northup 's Odyssey. Also in 2013, the Film 12 Years a Slave was produced based on his story. A year later in 2014, the movie won an Academy Award in 2014 for Best Picture. Twelve years a Slave help people today understand the emotional realities African-American Slaves faced. We finally understood what it meant to be a slave, but in reality, we will never fully know what it meant to be a slave. Sacrifices and compromises are something many leaders have to deal with. Soloman had to put his life on the line in order to gain freedom. Solomon was forced to be away from the people he dearly
Frederick Douglass was born into the institution of slavery in 1817, in Tuckahoe, Maryland. Frederick Douglass did not know the exact date of his birth so he adopted February 14th, because his mother used to call him her "little valentine." Douglass knew very little about his mother since she was a field hand on the plantation some twelve miles away, and tragically she died when he was a very young boy. Douglass did not know who his father was, but it was rumored he was the son of his white slave master, Aaron Anthony.
In Solomon Northup’s memoir, Twelve Years A Slave, he depicts the lives of African Americans living in the North as extremely painful and unjust. Additionally, they faced many hardships everyday of their lives. For one, they were stripped of their identities, loved ones, and most importantly their freedom. To illustrate this, Northup says, “He denied that I was free, and with an emphatic oath, declared that I came from Georgia” (20). This quote discusses the point in which Northup was kidnapped, and how he was ultimately robbed of his freedom, as well as his identity. Furthermore, not only were his captors cruel and repulsive, so was the way in which they treated African Americans. For instance, Northup states, “…Freeman, out of patience, tore Emily from her mother by main force, the two clinging to each other with all their might” (50). In this example, a mother is being parted from her child despite her cries and supplications, the slave owner
Solomon was a man that fell into these hands of misconception and kidnappers similar to Patty Cannon. Solomon Northup was one of the few that escaped the grasps of slavery. He wrote his own book, 12 Years a Slave, and even had a movie crea... ... middle of paper ... ... guilty.
"It was my good fortune to lend a helping hand to the weary travelers flying from the land of bondage."-William Still. William Still was a humble Philadelphia clerk who risked his life guiding runaway slaves to freedom in the crazy years leading up to America’s Civil War. Still was the director of a complex network of opponents, supporters and safe houses that stretched from Philadelphia to what is now Southern Ontario. In Williams fourteen years in the service of the Underground Railroad, he helped approximately eight hundred former slaves to escape. Still kept careful records of the many slaves who passed through the Philadelphia "station." After the Civil War, Still published the secret notes he’d kept in diaries during those years. And to this day, his book contains some of the best evidence we have of the workings of the Underground Railroad, detailing the freedom seekers who used it, including where they came from, how they escaped and the families they left behind. (http://www.pbs.org/black-culture/shows/list/underground-railroad/home/)
From before the country’s conception to the war that divided it and the fallout that abolished it, slavery has been heavily engrained in the American society. From poor white yeoman farmers, to Northern abolitionist, to Southern gentry, and apathetic northerners slavery transformed the way people viewed both their life and liberty. To truly understand the impact that slavery has had on American society one has to look no further than those who have experienced them firsthand. Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave and advocate for the abolitionist, is on such person. Douglass was a living contradiction to American society during his time. He was an African-American man, self-taught, knowledgeable, well-spoken, and a robust writer. Douglass displayed a level of skill that few of his people at the time could acquire. With his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave Written by Himself, Douglass captivated the people of his time with his firsthand accounts into the horror and brutality that is the institution of slavery.
Nat Turner Nat Turner was an African American slave who was born in Southampton County, Virginia on October 2, 1800. He started working on southern plantations in 1831. When he was younger, everyone thought of him as being very smart. They saw that he was smart when he was about 3 or 4 years old.
Frederick Douglass, who was born into slavery around 1818, will forever remain one of the most important figures in America's struggle for civil rights and racial equality. As an ex-slave, his inspiration grew beyond his boarders to reach the whole world. Without any formal education, Douglass escaped slavery and became a respected American diplomat, a counselor to four presidents, a highly regarded speaker, and an influential writer. By common consent Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (1845) is recognized as the best among the many slave narratives that appeared before the Civil War. He amazed people when he spoke bravely in his Fourth of July speech. He spoke out against oppression throughout America and abroad, and his struggle for freedom, self-discovery, and identity stands as a testament for all time, for all people. Although some people accused him of lying, exaggerating, and using his narrative and his well-known Fourth of July speech as part of an abolitionist plot, Douglass was able to clearly demonstrate his talents, sensitivity, and intellectual capacity by revealing the truth about the lives, culture, and psychological struggles of American slaves.
Imagine that it is the year 1841 in Saratoga, New York and blossoms of the dogwood tree are swirling around your face as the wind gently tousles your hair. All seems well in the world, and, to Solomon Northup, great opportunities are coming his way. Two men, by the names of Merrill Brown and Abram Hamilton, had offered a dream job to Solomon. They had asked him to join them in a circus, playing the fiddle, an instrument Solomon had mastered. However, these men were not as honest as they seemed. Brown and Hamilton later drugged and kidnapped Solomon at a hotel one night during the tour. These men successfully forced Solomon into twelve years of slavery.
In his true-life narrative "Twelve Years a Slave," Solomon Northup is a free man who is deceived into a situation that brings about his capture and ultimate misfortune to become a slave in the south. Solomon is a husband and father. Northup writes:
Douglass was born a slave in 1817, in Maryland. He educated himself and became determined to escape the horror of slavery. He attempted to escape slavery once, but failed. He later made a successful escape in 1838.
Django unchained and 12 years a slave would be two examples of a tragic beginning and happy ending. 12 years a slave was based on a true story about a free black man from the south named Solomon Northup. Solomon was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the pre-civil war era. Solomon was the son of an emancipated slave, Northup was born free. He lived, worked, and married in upstate New York, where his family resided. He was a multifaceted laborer and also an accomplished violin player. In 1841 two con men offered him lucrative work playing fiddle in a circus, so he traveled with them to Washington, D.C., where he was drugged, kidnapped, and subsequently sold as a slave into the Red River region of Louisiana. For the next twelve years he survived as the human property of several different slave masters, with the bulk of his bondage and lived under the cruel ownership of a southern planter named Edwin Epps. In January 1853, Northup was finally freed by Northern friends who came to his rescue. He returned home to his family in New York a free
The topic of slavery in the United States has always been controversial, as many people living in the South were supportive of it and many people living in the North were against it. Even though it was abolished by the Civil War before the start of the 20th century, there are still different views on the subject today. Written in 1853, the book Twelve Years a Slave is a first person account of what it was like for Solomon Northup to be taken captive from his free life in the North and sold to a plantation as a slave in the South, and his struggle to regain his freedom. Through writing about themes of namelessness, inhumanity, suffering, distrust, defiance, and the desire for freedom, Northup was able to expose the experiences and realities of slavery.
This is the account of an ex-slave by the name of William Barker who now resides in Bethany, AL. He is approximately 95 years old and lives in a little shack with a plot of land. He has worked for some local townsfolk doing some grounds keeping and gardening since he was freed when he was 20. But for the most part, Barker keeps to himself. He has no wife and no children. He is only 5 foot 4 and may weigh about 145 lbs. As a slave he worked as a gardner, and later learned to cook, but soon thereafter was freed. Gardening is all he seems to know. However, he seems very proficient at hunting. He says that is the only way he keep alive, living off what God gives him from the land and water. He was son to Frances William and Eliza William. His father died in the war. Because of his size and ability to cook, William Barker did not go to war. His mammy died within weeks of being free due to starvation. Here is his account
Northup, Solomon, Sue L. Eakin, and Joseph Logsdon. Twelve years a slave. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1968. Print.
This book was about Booker T Washington who was a slave on a plantation in Virginia until he was nine years old. His autobiography offers readers a look into his life as a young child. Simple pleasures, such as eating with a fork, sleeping in a bed, and wearing comfortable clothing, were unavailable to Washington and his family. His brief glimpses into a schoolhouse were all it took to make him long for a chance to study and learn. Readers will enjoy the straightforward and strong voice Washington uses to tell his story. The book document his childhood as a slave and his efforts to get an education, and he directly credits his education with his later success as a man of action in his community and the nation. Washington details his transition from student to teacher, and outlines his own development as an educator and founder of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. He tells the story of Tuskegee's growth, from classes held in a shantytown to a campus with many new buildings. In the final chapters of, it Washington describes his career as a public speaker and civil rights activist. Washington includes the address he gave at the Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition in 1895, which made him a national figure. He concludes his autobiography with an account of several recognitions he has received for his work, including an honorary degree from Harvard, and two significant visits to Tuskegee, one by President McKinley and another by General Samuel C. Armstrong. During his lifetime, Booker T. Washington was a national leader for the betterment of African Americans in the post-Reconstruction South. He advocated for economic and industrial improvement of Blacks while accommodating Whites on voting rights and social equality.