Solomon Northup: Film Analysis

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This film is based on the true-life story of Solomon Northup, a father of two children in 1841 living in Saratoga, New York. Solomon was a free African American man who played the violin for a living. He found temporary employment as a musician and left for Washington DC, there he found out he was deceived and bound by chains, yelling help as the film shows the background of the capital building, which makes one wonder what the government was doing to aid the situation. He was sent to New Orleans where he was given the name Platt, a runaway from Georgia and sold into slavery (McQueen, 2013). The tension between the North and the South at the time was very evident. Slaves would support the North during the Civil War.
The 1800s brought the Underground Railroad to the United States, a network of people that helped slaves escape slavery. To put into perspective how many slaves there were in the …show more content…

Still today issues such as human trafficking are present which makes us question if slavery has fully been ended. Approximately 18,000 people are trafficked in the United States each year. Some question what the government is doing to help those who are trafficked “But proving it is difficult. And a report published last year by the Urban Institute and Northeastern University suggests why: a lack of law enforcement resources, legal guidance and cooperation from victims. But Burke said if what victims have experienced cannot be proven, she at least hopes that public awareness will put pressure on those who profit from exploited laborers” (Martin, 2013). Still today we struggle with many issues that are similar to slavery in the United States. It can be easy to question one no one did anything to combat slavery during the time of the film but still today we must ask ourselves that same

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