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Recommended: 12 years a slave 2013 essay

“I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery; he must be made to feel that slavery is right; and he can be brought to that only when he ceased to be a man”(9). This quote from Fredrick Douglass, an abolitionist and ex-slave, shows just a fragment of what slavery was actually like. It is important that there is an understanding of what slavery was actually like. This is why Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup is a vastly important slave narrative in the world today. The narrative gives vivid images of what life of a slave was actually like. It shows the malicious experiences that resulted in Solomon and many other slaves wanting nothing more than to die, multiple forms of slavery, and the wrongful abductions that many slaves, not just Solomon Northup experienced.
The abduction of free African Americans was a very large problem in the United States and posed a significant problem for the safety of free Black communities. The issue of abduction was more common among children for the reason that they typically lacked the necessary papers and we’re less credible. That being said it doesn't mean that adults were never seized, as we saw in Twelve Years a Slave. “Where were Brown and Hamilton? What had I done to deserve imprisonment in such a dungeon?.. There must have been some misapprehension—some unfortunate mistake. It could not be that a free citizen of New-York, who had wronged no man, nor violated any law, should be dealt with thus inhumanly”(7). As the quote shows, the abduction were often done my misleading and...

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...practice a demonic form of slavery, and wanted nothing more than to end his life. Solomon Northup and his narrative, Twelve Years a Slave, are essential to the understanding of slave culture. It is because of him and many others that were able to compose slave narratives, that our society to this day understands the indisputable events that occurred in the United States. It’s saddening to hear that there is still forms of slavery in the world today. I believe that slavery isn't just a part of society, it’s a cycle and it’s engraved in some societies to this day. Slavery continues because there are people that allow for it to continue. This occurs because it’s all that they know, as they’ve grown up with it, and see nothing wrong. This belief that slavery is permitted must be acknowledge throughout the world, and people must begin to see the evils that come from it.

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