thesis statement 12 years a slave

12 Years A Slave - List of Essay Samples And Topic Ideas

12 Years a Slave is a memoir and slave narrative by Solomon Northup, an African-American who was born free in New York state but kidnapped and sold into slavery. Essays could analyze the historical and societal context of the narrative, discuss its impact on the abolitionist movement, or compare it to other slave narratives and their portrayal of slavery. A vast selection of complimentary essay illustrations pertaining to 12 Years A Slave you can find at PapersOwl Website. You can use our samples for inspiration to write your own essay, research paper, or just to explore a new topic for yourself.

12 Years a Slave Movie Critique

12 Years a Slave is based on the true story of Solomon Northup, an American African man who was taken from the North and sold into slavery. This movie accurately describes what slaves went through in their lives. It shows everything from the slaves being sold, and separated from their families to them being beaten. To what life was like on the plantations, and how they were treated. Since slaves were seen as property, they were sold as such. They […]

12 Years a Slave Summary

Watching 12 Years A Slave gave me a very realistic, but very shocking visual about everything that we have learned in class regarding slavery this semester and how slavery really was in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries in America. Before watching the movie, I thought I had a good idea of what slavery was like up until the ratification of the 13th Amendment in December of 1865, which officially ended it in the United States of America. However, what […]

Twelve Years a Slave Movie Analysis

Twelve Years a Slave (2013) Director: Steve McQueen Title of work: Twelve Years a Slave Date of release: October 18, 2013 Good films are not only a source of positive emotions, but are also a critical analysis of events that have occurred. "Twelve Years a Slave directed by Steve McQueen" is a great movie based on a true story. This films context make the audience think during and after the movie is over. McQueen depicts slavery on three levels, with […]

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Main Issues of 12 Years a Slave

12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup 2) Narrator: Author (Solomon Northup) Point of view: First person 3) Tone: determined Quote: After Solomon becomes a slave he gets some help from the others in which they say keep your head down if you want to survive with which he responds "I don't want to survive. I want to live"(Northup 71). This shows his determination because even if he has yet to become a slave he is determined to make it […]

My Impressions from 12 Years a Slave

Slavery was extremely important to America. I mean, it led to a civil war and it also lasted a very long time, looking back to 1619 through the 1800's, this is over 200 years. However, slavery is most important because we still struggle with its legacy today. The film, 12 Years a Slave, is aimed specifically at topical issues of slavery. The story really depicts the struggles African Americans were subjected to for these 12 years, the bondage of slavery […]

Who is Solomon Northup?

Solomon Northup was born in July 10, 1808 in Minerva, New York. His father, Mintus, was once a slave himself but was released into freedom due to the death of his former slave owner or "master". Solomon Northup and his brother, Joseph, grew up knowing freedom. Growing up, Solomon would help his father out on the farm. He also enjoyed reading and playing the violin. In 1829, at the age of 21, Solomon Northup married Anne Hampton on Christmas Day. […]

Solomon from 12 Years a Slave

12 years a slave book is a story of Solomon Northup who is a free black man, married and have 3 children who live in Saratoga Spring, New York. He's a talented carpenter and who can plays the violin for a living, until he met his kidnappers who lied, drugged, and sold him to a slavery. What makes Solomon northup's experience of slavery so different from others? Solomon background is started from his ancestors on his paternal side were slaves […]

12 Years a Slave: a Unique View on Slavery

Solomon Northup portrays an unique view to the narrative on slavery. He was born in New York as a free man. Northrop's father was a liberated slave, so while Northup knew of the horrors of slavery, he only knew the taste of freedom. In March of 1841, Solomon Northup agrees to join a circus as a fiddle player to make extra money for his family. While with the two men who recruited him into the circus, Abram Hamilton and Merrill […]

12 Years Slave Film Review

The motion picture opens with a gathering of slaves accepting direction on cutting sugar stick. A man sits lazily on a wagon of  pure sugar cane stick root, watching the men work. The scene moves to a gathering of shacks. The slaves are eating. Solomon Northup sees the dull juice of blackberries and it gives him an idea to make ink and a plume. Lamentably, the plan comes up short. The juice is too thin. Afterward, in the swarmed slave […]

The Greatness of 12 Years a Slave Movie

In 1853 Solomon Northup, an African-American born a free man, wrote his biography about how at the age of 33 he got kidnapped and separated from his wife and 3 children by two men he met who offered him lucrative work with a circus. Believing both men's words Northup followed them to Washington D.C. where after various stops to multiple saloons throughout the night Northup remembers getting ill with a severe headache and nausea. Shortly after leaving his room and […]

Solomon Northup in Twelve Years a Slave

Whites have for years have argued that slavery was great for African Americans to be slaves because it civilized them, and they would be content within bondage. This was not the case, at least according to those who were held in bondage. The accounts of slavery are importantly known because of those who were emancipated or runaway slaves. In the novel, Twelve Years a Slave, Solomon Northup composed a narrative about his life as a free man, and about his […]

Depiction of Slavery in Twelve Years a Slave

Twelve Years a Slave follows the narrative of Solomon Northup and his twelve-year experience being a free man then kidnapped to be turned into a slave. He expresses a different outlook into slavery since he had never lived it himself. Being brand new into slavery he is shocked at the horrible mistreatment that slaves endured. His father being a slave that was freed allowed Northup to have a family of his own. He was a free man robbed from his […]

12 Years of Slave: Significant Issues of the Film

The film 12 Years of Slaves is based on the autobiographical story of Solomon Northup. The film, annals the strenuous experiences of slavery and the dehumanizing effects of human oppression. This film portrayals the years of slavery withstood by Solomon Northup, an African American man who is a free citizen in New York. Inebriated from drinking, two men erroneously offers him work, he awakens in chains, before being quickly transported to the South to an existence of indentured servitude. The […]

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The Movie “12 Years a Slave” Critical Essay

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Introduction

Review of the movie, works cited.

The American society has encountered many upheavals and changes within the past three centuries. Such developments have resulted in different social and political relationships in the country.

Different conflict theories examine the origin of social struggles and disagreements. Such theories also explain why many people disagree with their leaders. Human beings require specific rights and needs. The denial of such needs will eventually result in violence.

The film “12 Years a Slave” gives a clear picture of slavery in the United States. This dark history created complex socio-economic and political developments in the country. Such issues also continue to affect the lives of many Americans. This paper examines the movie “12 Years a Slave” using different conflict resolution theories.

The history of America explains why many human beings fight for power. Hans Morgenthau offers a powerful analysis of human conflict using his Realism Theory. According to Morgenthau, human beings tend “to have insatiable lust for control and power” (Molly 12).

This situation produces social disagreements and conflicts. This argument also explores the actions and behaviors of many political leaders (Molly 13). Many landowners in the film such as Edwin Epps oppress their slaves. Many “whites believed that it was right for them to oppress their slaves” (Burton 41).

Northup finds it hard to cooperate with individuals such as John Tibeats. This situation occurs because many people want to control others. Epps also rapes Patsey because she cannot fight for her rights ( 12 Years a Slave ). Brown, James Burch, and Hamilton are also able to smuggle different slaves.

According to John Burton’s Basic Human Needs Theory, “people have unique needs that must be fulfilled” (Burton 19). Social struggles are usually determined by the nature of such human needs. Human beings are usually motivated to engage in violent behaviors (Burton 42).

Throughout the film, it is notable that Solomon Northup works hard in order to achieve his goals. He eventually finds himself in the hands of different slave-owners. He works hard in order to become free. He also fights back after being attacked by John Tibeats ( 12 Years a Slave ).

This film explains how the society fails to fulfill Northup’s needs. The existence of unfulfilled needs eventually results in social conflicts. Sociologists should therefore work hard in order to satisfy these human needs. Many slaves such as Patsey also encounter different challenges.

According to Ted Gurr’s Relative Deprivation Theory, people will always engage in various acts of violence. Ted believes that “a frustration-aggression mechanism is the leading cause of violence” (Gurr 38). Frustrations can also produce anger and pain.

This form of anger can eventually result in violence. Relative deprivation occurs “when people encounter major discrepancies between their gains and expectations” (Gurr 94). Deprivation can also cause violence or rebellion. This situation might occur even when the government fulfills the basic needs of its people.

Poor leadership can also result in violence. The stories presented in this film explain why many African Americans fought tirelessly for their rights. They were unhappy with the social, economic, and political issues affecting their lives.

The challenges encountered by Patsey shows clearly that many women suffered in the hands of different slave-owners ( 12 Years a Slave ). Bass and Northup are also saddened by the challenges encountered by different African Americans ( 12 Years a Slave ). This situation explains why inequality is experienced in the United States even today.

Johan Galtung’s Structural and Cultural Violence Theory examines the origin of human disagreements. Violence occurs whenever there are specific political and socio-economic arrangements in a given community. According to John Galtung, “structural or cultural violence will eventually result in direct violence” (Galtung 292).

However, this kind of violence arises from the existing structural developments. The “political and social conditions in a specific community can result in violence” (Galtung 294). That being the case, leaders and communities should work hard in order to deal with structural violence.

The existence of inequality has redefined the history of America. The movie explores how different African Americans such as Patsey encounter numerous problems.

The social and political conditions experienced during the time failed to favor many African Americans. This situation resulted in different conflicts. Bass is against slavery because it affects the lives of many people ( 12 Years a Slave ).

According Vamik Volkan’s Ethnic Violence and Psychoanalysis Theory, different groups tend to have unique values. Such traits dictate the behaviors of different communities. A “proper understanding of people’s psychologies can produce positive results” (Levine 276).

Human beings should understand the irrational attributes associated with violence. This approach will make it easier for every community to deal with ethnic violence. Many individuals “assign different cultural identities to other groups” (Levine 278).

The theory explains why different communities engage in endless fights. The concept of awareness can make it easier for many groups to deal with their conflicts. Throughout the Reconstruction Period, many whites believed that every black citizen was inferior.

Vamik’s theory explains why “class struggles have been experienced in the United States for many years” (Levine 279).

Max Weber has made numerous contributions to Modernization Theory. According to the sociologist, rationality is a core value towards modernization. The “main mission of every society is to be deliberated” (Wheeler 9). However, the absence of “a smooth process towards modernization will result in disagreements” (Wheeler 17).

This is the case because many people will always focus on their basic needs (Wheeler 18). This theory explains why “the idea of rationalization encouraged many African Americans to fight against slavery and inequality” (Wheeler 18). Northup eventually becomes a free citizen. He eventually reunites with his family after 12 years of slavery.

The film “12 Years a Slave” explores the existence of conflicts in the American society. A proper understanding of the social, political, and economic backgrounds of different groups can result in better resolutions. Although the film does not offer the best resolutions, it encourages people to focus on the needs of their neighbors.

Slavery is a malpractice than can result in disagreements and class struggles. Hans Morgenthau’s theory describes the origin of inequality. The government should use the above theories in order to fulfill the needs of its citizens (Burton 92). Every society should embrace the best practices in order to deal with different conflicts.

For instance, the American government should have dealt with slavery during the period. The film explains how conflicts and class struggles emerged in America during the time. This development will continue to affect the lives of many Americans. Many descendants of these slaves are also struggling in order to achieve their goals.

12 Years a Slave. Ex. Prod. Brad Pitt. New York, NY: Fox Searchlight Pictures. 2013. DVD.

Burton, John. Conflict: Human Needs Theory. New York: McMillan, 2003. Print.

Galtung, Johan. “Cultural Violence.” Journal of Peace Research 27.3 (1990): 291-305. Print.

Gurr, Ted. Why Men Rebel. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 2012. Print.

Levine, Howard. “Large-Group Dynamics and World Conflict: the Contributions of Vamik Volkan.” The Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Associations 54.1 (2006): 273-280. Print.

Molly, Sean. “Truth, Power, Theory: Hans Morgenthau’s Formulation of Realism.” Diplomacy and Statecraft 15.1 (2004): 1-23. Print.

Wheeler, Norton. “Modernization Discourse with Chinese Characteristics.” Springer 22.3 (2005): 3-24. Print.

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• Lesson Plans
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Twelve Years a Slave : Analyzing Slave Narratives

Engraving of Solomon Northup "in his plantation suit," circa 1853.

Wikimedia Commons

"Although often dismissed as mere antislavery propaganda, the widespread consumption of slave narratives in the nineteenth-century U.S. and Great Britain and their continuing prominence today testify to the power of these texts to provoke reflection and debate." —William L. Andrews, Professor of English, University of North Carolina

Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841 and Rescued in 1853 (to be referred to as Twelve Years a Slave ) is the focus of this lesson on analyzing messages in slave narratives. In this unique literary tradition, formerly enslaved men and women report what they experienced and witnessed during their enslavement. Slave narratives had a mission: to convert readers’ hearts and minds to the antislavery cause by revealing how slavery undermined and perverted the principal institutions upon which America was founded: representative democracy, Protestant Christianity, capitalism, and marriage and the family.

The corrupting influence of slavery on marriage and the family is a predominant theme in Northup’s narrative. In this lesson, students are asked to identify and analyze narrative passages that provide evidence for how slavery undermined and perverted marriage and the family. They will be challenged to go beyond the literal meaning of the text and to make inferences using their prior knowledge, including knowledge of narratives’ antislavery mission.

Northup collaborated with a white ghostwriter, David Wilson . Students will read the preface and identify and analyze statements Wilson makes to prove the narrative is true. Students are encouraged to go beyond the literal meaning of the text and to make inferences about Wilson’s purposes for writing the preface.

Guiding Questions

What does Solomon Northup’s narrative reveal about the relation between slavery and social institutions such as marriage and the family?

Why are slave narratives’ authenticity and truthfulness questioned?

What do slave narratives reveal about how history is recorded in the United States?

Learning Objectives

Describe the slave narrative tradition and evaluate its purpose.

Analyze how the relationships Northup describes explicitly illustrate or imply how slavery corrupted the social institutions of marriage and the family.

Analyze statements the ghostwriter makes to prove the narrative’s truth and infer why he made the statements.

Lesson Plan Details

Of the institutions that define the American identity, these come to mind:

• In the political sphere, Representative Democracy
• In the religious sphere, Protestant Christianity
• In the economic sphere, Capitalism
• In the social sphere, Marriage.

The fifth institution, however, may not be as readily apparent:

• Human Bondage or Chattel Slavery

Why? The institution of slavery threatened the nation’s dedication to each of the four other key institutions in our history.

More than any other literary form, the American slave narrative dramatized how slavery corrupted America’s greatest institutions and thereby threatened to destroy the very social, economic, religious, and political bedrock upon which the country was founded. Twelve Years a Slave , in particular, supports the antislavery argument that the institution of slavery undermined and perverted the institutions of marriage and the family.

Solomon Northup was a free black man who was kidnapped from his home in the North and sold into slavery in the South. His steadfast love for his wife and children fortified him to endure slavery and to devise a means to be rescued. Northup’s commitment to his family stands in stark contrast to behaviors he witnessed among slave owners. He saw them desecrate their marriage vows; he saw the natural bonds between enslaved parents and their children sundered for slaveholders’ profit; he saw enslaved women’s lives devastated by their owners’ sexual exploitation; and he witnessed the jealousy and violence of slave owners’ legal wives toward the enslaved women their husbands had extra-marital relationships with and often fathered enslaved children by.

Northup’s narrative is unique because most slave narratives were written by individuals who were born into slavery and escaped to freedom. Northup was a kidnap victim, not a fugitive. Moreover, his was a rarity among slave narratives because it was authored by a white ghostwriter, David Wilson. Wilson took the facts Northup provided him and rendered them into an “as told to the writer” narrative. Because Wilson penned the narrative credibility issues have been raised; however, scholars agree that Twelve Years a Slave is historically accurate and verifiable regarding Northup’s life before, during, and after his enslavement.

In the summer of 1853, Twelve Years a Slave was published in Auburn and Buffalo, New York, as well as in London, England. By 1856 it had sold 30,000 copies, a sales record rivaling that of Frederick Douglass’s 1845 Narrative in its first five years of publication. In the fall of 2013, weeks after 12 Years a Slave, a major motion picture based on the narrative, was released to great acclaim, the narrative was on the New York Times Best Seller List. Its renewed popularity as a book and a film underscores how America’s greatest human tragedy, chattel slavery and the legacy of racism and discrimination, remain compelling themes for the American people.

For a framework for teaching this material, review the PDF/PowerPoint Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave , and Analyzing Slave Narratives . This presentation draws from the  Biography of Solomon Northup   and the longer resource essay, “ Solomon Northup’s 12 Years a Slave , and the Slave Narrative Tradition ."

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.2. Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.8. Distinguish among fact, opinion, and reasoned judgment in a text.

• Power Point : Solomon Northup and  Twelve Years a Slave: How to Analyze Slave Narratives
• Solomon Northup’s  Twelve Years a Slave and the Slave Narrative Tradition
• Biography of Solomon Northup
• Analyzing the Text: Eliza Loses Her Children
• Analyzing the Text: Answer Sheet: Eliza
• Analyzing the Text: The Soul Murder of Patsey
• Analyzing the Text: Answer Sheet: Patsey
• Editor’s Preface
• Editor’s Preface: Responses for Discussion
• Editor’s Preface: Assessment
• Editor’s Preface: Assessment Answer Sheet
• Final Quiz Assessment
• Final Quiz Assessment: Answer Key

Note to Teachers: The complete text of Twelve Years a Slave can be found at the EDSITEment-reviewed digital archive Documenting the American South . First, read the " Introduction to the North American Slave Narrative ,” also on the site. In addition to readings excerpted for analysis activities below, the important readings are:

• pp. 17–27 (Chapter I)
• pp. 35–39 (drinking in Washington, D.C., discovering himself in chains)
• pp. 75–80 (arrival at the New Orleans slave market)
• pp. 89–99 (Ford and Northup’s early successes as a slave)
• pp. 105–117 (a fight with Tibeats and aftermath)
• pp. 162–163 (introduction to Epps)
• pp. 180–185 (life under Epps); pp.188–189 (Patsey)
• pp. 223–227 (Northup as slave driver)
• pp. 230–235 (foiled in writing a letter)
• pp. 312–318 (frustration with the case against Burch)
• pp. 319–321 (Northup family reunion)

These comprise 65 pages of the 336-page narrative.

View the brief trailer from 12 Years a Slave (2013) Link to film trailer here . An earlier, NEH-funded film based on Northup’s narrative and directed by Gordon Parks,  Solomon Northup’s Odyssey (1984) is also worthy of note. By being familiar with both, you can decide which one to use with your students.

Activity 1. Analyzing the Text: Eliza Loses Her Children

• Ask students: What is a slave narrative? Reinforce the correct answers and redefine.
• Show the short video trailer for 12 Years a Slave . Inquire about students’ prior knowledge: “Who has read Solomon Northup’s slave narrative?” or “Who has seen the movie 12 Years a Slave directed by Stephen McQueen or Solomon Northup’s Odyssey directed by Gordon Parks?” In the discussion make sure students understand the narrative’s storyline. (Time permitting, have students read as homework before the lesson the 65 pages in the narrative listed under Preparation and Resources.)
• Using “ Power Point : Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave , and Analyzing Slave Narratives ” which draws from the Biography and Background sections of this lesson and from the essay: " Solomon Northup’s 12 Years a Slave and the Slave Narrative Tradition" give students a short (1–15 minute) background for the lesson.
• Divide the class into pairs and distribute “ Analyzing the Text: Eliza Loses Her Children .” Ask each pair to read and determine at least four ways the excerpt illustrates or implies how slavery undermined and perverted the institutions of marriage and the family.
• Challenge pairs to go beyond the literal meaning of the text and to make inferences from their prior knowledge, especially 1) knowledge of slave narratives’ antislavery mission; and 2) knowledge of principles and tenets undergirding the institutions of marriage and the family. Stress that responses must be substantiated by evidence from the text.
• Review how to approach analysis of the text excerpt with the class. Let each student read silently and highlight relevant text. After reading the whole excerpt, have the pairs review their highlighted segments together. Ask “reading between the lines” probing questions to help them make inferences (see: page 4 of “ Analyzing the Text: Eliza Loses her Children. ”). Then respond by identifying four examples representing corruption of marriage and the family by the institution of slavery
• Ask several pairs of students to stand and present their responses to “Analyzing the Text Eliza Loses Her Children” and also to share other observations or inferences they made. Lead a discussion with the whole class referring to “ Analyzing the Text: Answer Sheet ."

Note to Teacher: The following excerpt, a graphic description of slave whipping, may not be suitable for all students. We recommend that teachers review carefully before assigning.

• Distribute “ Analyzing the Text: The Soul Murder of Patsey .” Advise students that the excerpt contains emotionally disturbing and graphically violent content.
• Inform students that they are to work independently to identify and analyze the text that conveys how slavery undermined and perverted the institutions of marriage and the family. Advise that they will need to go beyond the literal meaning of the text and to make inferences using their prior knowledge, especially their knowledge of slave narratives’ antislavery mission.

Activity 2. Editor's Preface

• Steps 1–4 are the same as for Activity 1
• Distribute the PDF, Editor’s Preface and have a student read this to the whole class. Ask students independently to underline the statements in the Editor’s Preface in which the editor is trying to convince the reader of the truthfulness of the narrative.
• Using the PDF, Activity 2. Editor’s Preface: Responses for Discussion , lead a discussion about the statements identified. Reinforce learning objective 3.
• Distribute the PDF, Activity 2. Editor’s Preface: Assessment . In this exercise, students will identify statements which are intended to convince the reader that the narrative is true.
• To assess student work, see the PDF, Activity 2. Editor’s Preface: Assessment Answer Sheet to Editor’s Preface.

In the event that teachers have implemented both Activity 1 and Activity 2, the quiz will enable them to assess student accomplishment of the learning outcomes for both activities. Distribute the quiz . Ask students to complete it.

• Students write a paper comparing and contrasting Northup’s narrative to that of Frederick Douglass and/or Harriet Jacobs or another individual, using the appropriate sections of William L. Andrews’s essay “Solomon Northup’s 12 Years a Slave and the Slave Narrative Tradition ” as one of the reference documents.
• Students review and summarize contemporaneous newspaper articles about Northup’s efforts to obtain justice. Direct students to the EDSITEment Closer Reading blog entry " Searching for Solomon Northup in Chronicling America " for helpful suggestions about how to search in Chronicling America's database of historic digital newspapers. 
• Students compare and contrast interpretations of Solomon Northrup’s narrative in the two films: Solomon Northup’s Odyssey (1984), directed by Gordon Parks and 12 Years a Slave (2013), directed by Stephen McQueen. Remind them to be sure to indicate where the film(s) were faithful to the narrative and where they were not, and. using prior knowledge and reason, analyze why they think these departures from the Northup’s slave narrative may have been made.

Materials & Media

“twelve years a slave”: activity 1. analyzing the text: eliza loses her children, “twelve years a slave”: activity 1. analyzing the text: the soul murder of patsey, “twelve years a slave”: activity 1.1. analyzing the text: answer sheet: eliza, “twelve years a slave”: activity 1.2. analyzing the text: answer sheet: patsey, “twelve years a slave”: activity 2. editor's preface, “twelve years a slave”: activity 2. editor's preface answer sheet, “twelve years a slave”: activity 2. editor's preface: assessment, “twelve years a slave”: activity 2. editor's preface: responses for discussion, “twelve years a slave”: final assessment quiz, “twelve years a slave”: final quiz answer key, related on edsitement, harriet jacobs and elizabeth keckly: the material and emotional realities of childhood in slavery, slavery and the american founding: the "inconsistency not to be excused", frederick douglass's, “what to the slave is the fourth of july”, lesson 2: from courage to freedom: slavery's dehumanizing effects, twelve years a slave : was the case of solomon northup exceptional, harriet tubman and the underground railroad.

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12 Years a Slave : Jasper's Look

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Miriam Thaggert, 12 Years a Slave : Jasper's Look, American Literary History , Volume 26, Issue 2, Summer 2014, Pages 332–338, https://doi.org/10.1093/alh/aju013

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There is a temporal and spatial precision in the full title of Solomon Northup's narrative: Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of a Citizen of New York, Solomon Northup, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, Rescued in 1853, from a Cotton Plantation near the Red River in Louisiana. The subtitle charts a geographical, linear, and narrative progression South, reversing the escape-to-freedom trajectory of other slave narratives and the northern movement of the Great Migration that will follow some 60 years after Northup's kidnapping. As if a reader may be incredulous at the duration of enslavement, the lengthy title offers specific years as proof that the years do, in fact, add up.

Given the significance of time in the title and the title's mapping of a geographic descent south, it is perhaps fitting that the film adaptation of Northup's narrative plays with temporal and spatial markers. The film begins not with Northup with his family in New York or when Northup is kidnapped in DC, but with an image of Northup, standing near a sugar cane field in Louisiana. Asked why he began the film with this image at a point when Solomon is owned by his third, and not first owner, director Steve McQueen notes a need to disarm, to startle the viewer: “I wanted to throw the audience immediately into the deep end, putting people in a situation where they're scratching their heads. If we'd started with him as a free man walking around New York, then it would have set up the expectation of him going into slavery and an A, B, C, D structure. When you show that he's already a slave, it's a very dynamic tipping point: okay, this is what slavery's like. It's seen as tranquil and normal, in a way, but as an audience we realize, obviously, it's not normal. I wanted to present this as the life that people lived, and then twist it” (Fuller 22). Confronted with a scene of uncertain time and space, the viewer, like Solomon, has to come to terms with the disbelief of a free American male citizen being captured and sold into slavery. McQueen's statement indicates how the film must perform a dual process: reveal how slavery was a normal condition of the time period, a familiarity that does not require commentary, and at the same time demonstrate how abnormal slavery is to the twenty-first-century viewer. It must de-familiarize the contemporary filmgoer's ideas about slavery, muted from years of sanitized depictions of the “peculiar institution.”

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The Cultural Significance of Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave

by Mollie Lieblich

Drugged and beaten, Solomon Northup was illegally kidnapped from his hometown in Saratoga Springs in upstate New York and taken to Washington, D.C. in 1841. He woke up in the slave pen where he was sadistically remade from a black free man in the North into a slave in the South. Questioning his fate, Northup asked, “could it be possible that I was thousands of miles from home—that I had been chained and beaten without mercy—that I was even herded with a drove of slaves, a slave myself? 1  Detailing his transformation into “chattel” property, Northup recollected that the slave trader, “would make us hold up our heads, walk briskly back and forth, while customers would feel our hands and arms and bodies, turn us about, ask us what we could do, make us open our mouths and show our teeth, precisely as a jockey examines a horse which he is about to barter for or purchase.” 2  Forced to accept his new-found status as a captured slave, Solomon Northup was sold “down river” to Louisiana and labored for twelve years, toiling on cotton and sugar plantations in the South.

Set to come out in October 2013, Brad Pitt and Chiwetel Ejiofor star in a movie “12 Years a Slave” directed by Steve McQueen based on Solomon Northup’s Slave narrative.

Solomon Northup’s slave narrative, Twelve Years A Slave; Narrative of a Citizen of New-York, Solomon Northup, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, Rescued in 1853, From a Cotton Plantation Near the Red River, in Louisiana, achieved a remarkable degree of success as an abolitionist indictment against slavery . First published in 1853, three years after the Fugitive Slave Act, Northup’s narrative served as an important cultural symbol of slave life on southern plantations during antebellum America before the Civil War.

Born into freedom, Northup was kidnapped into slavery at the age of thirty. Lured to Washington, D.C. in 1841 by the promise of easy employment, fast money, and adventure, Northup was in reality drugged, beaten, and sold into slavery within sight of the nation’s capital. According to historian Ira Berlin, Northup “joined the mass of black humanity—some one million in number—that was forcibly transported South to reconstruct the plantation economy on new ground, as the center of American slavery shifted from the production of tobacco and rice in the seaboard states to that of cotton and sugar in the interior.” 3 Between 1790 and 1860, approximately one million African Americans were transported from the Upper South to the Deep South in the domestic slave trade. 4

While in captivity, Northup wrote letters to family and friends in the North which later became the raw materials of his slave narrative. From the 1740’s to 1865, approximately sixty-five autobiographical slave narratives were published in book or pamphlet form. 5  Created as propaganda for abolitionism, slave narratives often conformed to reoccurring narrative structures and literary conventions. Authenticity was considered essential. Most pre-emancipation slave narratives include phrases such as “written by himself” or “herself” on title pages, as well as numerous testimonials, prefaces, and letters of endorsement by white abolitionists and supporters. The narratives usually began, “I was born,” identifying a specific birthplace but no date of birth, since slaves often did not have that knowledge. Many narratives also included a photo or engraved portrait of the author and included appendices— bills of sale, free papers, newspaper clippings, sermons, speeches, poems simultaneously upheld the legitimacy of their story while arguing the case against slavery. 6  Slave narratives proved that, despite the odds, many slaves managed to escape their degradation and learned how to read and write. After escaping their bondage and making contacts with abolitionists, they were able to tell their tale to others.

When the abolitionist movement identified ex-slaves interested in publishing their stories, white editors conformed narratives to the dictates of nineteenth century sentimental literature in order to appeal to audiences nationwide. Publishers and editors reinforced themes that shocked the nation.  

Twelve Years A Slave —The Slave Narrative of Solomon Northup

Even when ex-slaves wrote their own narratives, many struggled to gain full free expression and narrative authority from the restrictions of white editorial control. Solomon Northup’s experience in slavery quickly became national news after his rescue in 1853 from a cotton plantation in Louisiana. Promoted by abolitionist leaders like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and William Lloyd Garrison, Northup’s book quickly became a strong seller, going through half a dozen printings. 7 At three hundred and thirty pages, Northup’s is one of the longest narratives ever written. To counter critics who would have discredited his narrative as fabrication, Northup—unlike Frederick Douglass or other authors of slave life who preferred generalities and employed pseudonyms—loaded his account with specifics. He cited actual names, places and dates so that his readers could identify and bring his captors to trial. Twelve Years A Slave , Northup declared, would “present a full and truthful statement of all the principal events in the history of my life, and…portray the institution of slavery as I have seen and known it.” 8  Northup wanted to present an accurate, first-hand account of the atrocities and terrors of slavery and to bring his captors to trial.

Violence, Plantation Work, and the Desecration of the Family

Twelve Years A Slave is one of the most authentic descriptions of slavery from the viewpoint of the slave himself. 9  Extreme violence is central in Northup’s narrative; he emphasizes that the slave owner’s authority was only maintained by terrorizing enslaved black people they owned with relentless physical and psychological violence. Whips, paddles, shackles, and the stocks make repeat appearances, especially in Solomon’s description of his life as a newly kidnapped free man. Stripped of his clothing and nailed to the floor, Northup endured blow after blow to his naked body after he awoke in a slave pen; his enslavers paused only to ask if their prisoner would accept his new status. As Northup recollected,

As soon as these formidable whips appeared, I was seized by both of them, and roughly divested of my clothing. My feet, as has been stated, were fastened to the floor […]. With the paddle, Burch commenced beating me. Blow after blow was inflicted on my naked body. When his unrelenting arm grew tired, he stopped and asked if I still insisted I was a free man. I did insist upon it, and then the blows were renewed, faster and more energetically, if possible, than before.

–solomon northup (44-45).

It was only after the paddle broke and his enslaver seized a rope to continue beating him that Northup was finally silenced into accepting his new identity as a slave. In these scenes of brutality, Northup insisted such sadistic events were so traumatic that he could still feel them while writing. “I thought I must die beneath the lashes of the accursed brute. Even now the flesh crawls upon my bones, as I recall the scene. I was all on fire. My sufferings I can compare to nothing else than the burning agonies of hell.”

The second major theme in Northup’s narrative is the constant and unrelenting hardship of plantation work. The images that Northup captures in his descriptions of life and labor on the plantations of Louisiana depict the sheer exhaustion, monotony, and fear that each slave struggled with physically and psychologically. As Northup recalled,

An hour before daylight the horn is blown. Then the slaves arouse, prepare their breakfast, fill a gourd with water […] and hurry to the field again […]. Then the fears and labors of another day begin; and until its close there is no such thing as rest. He fears he will be caught lagging through the day; he fears to approach the gin house with his basket-load of cotton at night; he fears, when he lies down, that he will oversleep himself in the morning. Such is a true, faithful, unexaggerated picture and description of the slave’s daily life, during the time of cotton-picking on the shores of Bayou Beouf. 10

Northup’s rendering of the daily life of slavery captures the incessant emotional and physical toll of slavery’s imprisonment.

Solomon Northup also detailed the experiences of the slave women he encountered during his twelve years as a slave, and especially elaborated on the experience of Patsey, a twenty-three-year-old slave who was the victim of a licentious master and a jealous mistress. Caught between her white mistress’s jealous wrath and the sexual abuse of her master, Northup recalled that Patsey lived her life in torment and fear,

If [Patsey] uttered a word in opposition to her master’s will, the lash was resorted to at once, to bring her to subjection; if she was not watchful about her cabin, or when walking in the yard, a billet of wood, or a broken bottle perhaps, hurled from her mistress’s hand, and would smite her unexpectedly in the face. The enslaved victim of lust and hate, Patsey had no comfort of her life. 11

Although Patsey was a faithful slave and worked in the cotton fields for her master’s profit, she became the helpless victim of her master’s lust. Pasty’s mistress took her jealous anger out on her female slave instead of finding fault in her husband. “Nothing delighted the mistress so much as to see [Patsey] suffer,” noted Northup. He continued, “more than once, when [master] Epps refused to sell her, has she tempted me with bribes to put her secretly to death, and bury her body in some lonely place in the margin of the swamp.” 12  Doubly abused by the sexual terror and physiological torment of her master and mistress, respectively, Patsey’s story represented the brutality of slavery experienced by bondswomen. At the hands of white men, Northup made clear, black women were sexually and physically exploited with impunity during slavery. This normalization of sexual exploitation of slave women reflected the racist perceptions and stigmatization of black women.

Female slaves also faced the separation of families and children. In his account, Northup noted the intense emotions of female slave mothers at the auction block. Relating the remorselessness of white slave traders who disregarded the feelings of slave mothers separated from their children, he recalled the intense grieving of a female slave named Eliza after she had been forcibly separated from her two young children. Eliza was overwhelmed with grief when a new white master purchased her children and not herself. As Northup noted,

All the time the trade was going on, Eliza was crying aloud, and wringing her hands. She besought the man not to buy [her child], unless he also bought herself and [her other small child]. She promised, in that case, to be the most faithful slave that ever lived. The man answered that he could not afford it, and then Eliza burst into a paroxysm of grief, weeping plaintively. 13

Forced to confront the realities of fleeting motherhood as a slave, female bondswomen suffered terribly from the emotional separation of themselves and their children in the uncertain world of the American slave trade. By displaying the abuse black women suffered during slavery—from sexual terror, physiological torment, and the separation of families—Northup’s narrative was able to evoke a sympathetic antislavery feeling in the Northern states in the decades before the Civil War by exposing the horrors upon its innocent victims.

The Process of Writing Solomon Northup’s Slave Narrative

Northup’s story was written immediately after his rescue while still fresh in his mind. His book had fewer romanticized memory errors which other slave narratives suffered from, such as the oral history interviews conducted by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) of surviving ex-slaves during the 1930s. These narratives are used sparingly by historians since former slaves were interviewed in their old age and in many cases, the interviewer was white, who would either intimidate the former slave they were interviewing or the former slave would feel uncomfortable because of lingering racism prevalent during the 1930’s Jim Crow south.

To emphasize the narrative’s authenticity, Northup and his editor dedicated the 1854 second edition to Harriet Beecher Stowe, in recognition of her widely successful antislavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852). Northup’s experience as a slave depicted a “striking parallel” to Stowe’s fictitious account of the slave named Uncle Tom under the hands of his tyrannical master. In response to the critics who had denounced Uncle Tom’s Cabin as a sentimental, overly exaggerated portrayal of slavery, Stowe published A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1853 to prove that her novel was a truthful depiction of antebellum slavery. She wrote in A Key , “it is a singular coincidence, that Solomon Northup was carried to a plantation in the Red River county—that same region where the scene of Uncle Tom’s captivity was laid—and his account of this plantation, and the mode of life there, and some incidents which he describes, form a striking parallel to that history.” 14  The publication of Northup’s narrative, a year after Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, gave credibility to both of their works. Northup’s rendering of daily life on a Louisiana plantation served as an authentic parallel to Stowe’s fictitious story of Uncle Tom.

There is no way to verify who actually wrote Twelve Years A Slave , but historians speculate that it was a collaborative project between Solomon Northup and his white editor, David Wilson, who was a minor literary figure from a town in New York’s Hudson Valley. 15  Even if Northup was not the sole author, he was very involved in the creation of the book’s content. Wilson, trying to generate sales for his book, said that Northup “carefully perused the manuscript,” correcting even “trivial inaccuracies.” Over the years, Northup’s account has held up to all verification efforts. 16  In the “Editor’s Preface” to Twelve Years A Slave , Wilson refers to himself as the “editor” and mentions that due to “all the facts which have been communicated to him,” the work ended up being longer than originally anticipated. Northup wrote in the first person, and asserted in the first pages that his purpose was “to give a candid and truthful statement of facts: to repeat the story of my life, without exaggeration, leaving it for others to determine, whether even the pages of fiction present a picture of more cruel wrong or a severer bondage.” 17  In the wake of newspaper reports of his rescue from slavery, Henry Northup (a white attorney and lifelong friend from New York whose family had once owned Solomon’s father), Solomon Northup, and David Wilson collaborated and published his story within the first few months of his return to the North. Henry Northup gave Wilson an incentive to publish the book as quickly as possible in the wake of news reports of Solomon’s rescue. The attorney rightfully figured that information from the book would quickly reach readers who could, and who eventually did, identify the kidnappers.

A number of northern newspapers, such as The New York Tribune, Buffalo Express, Cincinnati Journal, and Syracuse Journal , praised the publication as a credible depiction of southern slavery and its degradation. Former slave and leading abolitionist Frederick Douglass praised the book in his northern newspaper, The North Star , as “a strange history; its truth is far greater than fiction. Think of it! For thirty years a man, with all a man’s hopes, fears, and aspirations—with a wife and children to call by the endearing names of husband and father—with a home, humble it may be, but still a home […], then for twelve years a thing, a chattel personal, classed with mules and horses, […] It chills the blood to think that such are.” 18  Press reviews from William Lloyd Garrison, (whose newspaper, The Liberator , called the book “a deeply interesting and thrilling narrative”) contributed to its success and convinced Northup to give lectures and turn it into a play. Northup’s Twelve Years A Slave was on par with other best-sellers of the day. In the years before the Civil War, nearly 30,000 copies of Northup’s book were sold. 19

The publication of slave narratives in the antebellum and postemancipation eras challenged former slaves to face their experiences in slavery and demanded that the nation remember it as part of a collective history. As Frederick Douglass warned in an 1884 speech, “It is not well to forget the past. The past is…the mirror in which we may discern the dim outlines of the future and by which we make them more symmetrical.” 20 Recollecting and remembering slavery not only served as a national project to acknowledge its brutality, but it also placed former black slaves at the center and emphasized their agency in the drama for emancipation. By publishing the traumatic aspects of his life in captivity as a southern slave, Northup brought to light the sadism of American slavery, raised awareness in Northern audiences, and brought national attention to the injustices brought upon him. His book served as a tool for redemption while raising the consciousness about the barbarity of slavery—the inhumane separation of families, the beatings and torture of overseers and masters, and the sexual exploitation of slave women. Whether we view these narratives as wholly factual or not, they serve as important cultural reminders of an ugly part of American history that left its imprint on those who were its victims as well as on American society as a whole.

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12 Years a Slave

Solomon northup.

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Racism and Slavery

12 Years a Slave grapples with the racism that fuels slavery and Solomon Northup ’s suffering. The narrative illustrates how racism is an instrument for human wickedness—a justification for a slave owner to be unrelenting, cruel, and inhumane. 12 Years a Slave clearly points out that racism is a learned behavior, not an inherent understanding that people are born with. The overarching purpose of 12 Years a Slave is to reveal the heartbreaking realities of…

Truth and Justice

Although 12 Years a Slave commends telling the truth, considering it a sign of integrity and strength, the book also explores the complexity involved in telling the truth in nineteenth-century America. Racism means that truth coming from a slave is deemed worthless, limiting a slave’s ability to seek justice. Further, telling the truth can be dangerous or deadly for an innocent person in this toxic environment. In this case, Solomon Northup maintains, it is appropriate…

12 Years a Slave centers on the twelve years of agony that author and protagonist Solomon Northup spent as a slave in Louisiana, completely cut off from his family. Although Solomon’s family appears very little throughout the narrative, family plays a key role in Solomon’s experiences. The narrative points out that the concept of family is broader than being related by blood or marriage. Instead, family encompasses those who show one another love, compassion, and…

Christianity

Throughout 12 Years a Slave , Solomon Northup asserts that God loves all of his people, regardless of race. The inherent equality among men in God’s eyes means that Christianity is a source of comfort and strength for the slaves, as well as a way to understand their circumstances. 12 Years a Slave also reveals the hypocritical underbelly of Christianity in the American South, showing the way that Christianity can be terribly manipulated into a…

The Power of Music

In 12 Years a Slave , author and protagonist Solomon Northup highlights how his violin brought him brief but treasured moments of joy and comfort in the midst of otherwise-horrific situations. He even attributes his physical survival under his most brutal master, Edwin Epps , to his violin. However, Solomon also reveals how the scant joy in his life, music, was perverted by slave dealers and owners.

In the opening pages of his narrative, Solomon…

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Book Review — A Literary Analysis of Twelve Years a Slave

A Literary Analysis of Twelve Years a Slave

• Categories: Abolitionism Book Review

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Words: 860 |

Published: Oct 26, 2018

Words: 860 | Pages: 2 | 5 min read

Works Cited

• Northup, S. (1853). Twelve Years a Slave. Auburn, NY: Derby and Miller Publishers.
• Foner, P. S. (2012). Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, From a Cotton Plantation Near the Red River, in Louisiana. New York, NY: Barnes & Noble.
• Eakin, S. (1998). Solving Solomon Northup: Uncovering the Story behind Twelve Years a Slave. LSU Press.
• Hennessy, K. M. (2013). Slavery, Freedom, and Memory in Twenty-First Century America. American Studies, 52(4), 97-114.
• Melish, J. H. (2014). Disowning Slavery: Gradual Emancipation and "Race" in New England, 1780-1860. Cornell University Press.
• Bassett, J. S. (2007). Solomon Northup's Odyssey: Twelve Years a Slave. In S. T. Ormond (Ed.), Slavery and Emancipation (pp. 45-66). Pearson Longman.
• Farrow, A., Lang, J. E., & Frank, S. (2013). Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery. Random House.
• Hinks, P. P., & McKivigan, J. R. (Eds.). (2011). Solomon Northup: The Complete Story of the Author of Twelve Years a Slave. ABC-CLIO.
• Stauffer, J. (2008). Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. Twelve.
• McQueen, S. (Director). (2013). 12 Years a Slave [Film]. Regency Enterprises.

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Twelve Years a Slave

by Solomon Northup

Twelve years a slave themes.

Though it is not at the forefront of Northup's narrative, religion plays a crucial role in his story. Northup uses religion to emphasize which characters are "good" and which are "bad." For example, Tibeats and Epp both swear profusely and use God's name in vain, emphasizing their poor character. By contrast, Ford never takes God's name in vain and is depicted as a devout worshiper of God. Ford even holds sermons and invites his slaves to participate in sharing the word of God. In 1853, when this book was published, these characteristics would have stood out to readers. Furthermore, Northup portrays himself as a religious person on multiple occasions, such as when, after successfully fleeing through a snake-infested forest, Northup credits God for his survival. Religion was comforting to slaves held in bondage, offering them visions of an afterlife in which they could be free from suffering and connect with those they'd lost on earth.

Sexual Assault

Misogyny (and the resulting sexual abuse) is a vital piece of Northup's commentary on slavery. In his initial introduction of Patsey , Northup describes how, as "The enslaved victim of lust and hate, Patsey had no comfort of her life" (135). As a female slave, Patsey was forced to succumb to Epp's sexual violence and physical violence. She not only belonged to him as a means of picking cotton, but for sexual gratification as well. This inspires the jealousy that leads to the violence Patsey experiences near the end of the novel, wherein Epps whips her until she is unconscious. A male slave would not have been subjected to this, and Northup recognizes this in his narrative: "If ever there was a broken heart — one crushed and blighted by the rude grasp of suffering and misfortune — it was Patsey's" (188). Slave women were thus subject to all of the arduous labor, capricious punishments, and emotional trauma of slaves in general, but they also faced the added tortures of rape, abuse, and pregnancy with a master's child.

Identity drives Northup's narrative. At the beginning of the narrative, prior to his enslavement, Northup's identity is one of an affluent, well-liked, and talented violinist. Not only that, but his identity is also one of a free man. Following his enslavement, however, his identity is stripped away: he is no longer "Solomon"; instead, he is "Platt." His identity is now that of a slave: when he insists that he is free, he is beaten until he stops insisting. He is no longer allowed to move through the world however he likes, instead being forced to yield to what white people expect of him. His identity — at least outwardly — is forced to completely change. Internally, however, Northup remembers his past identity, which inspires him to survive. He finds value in the violin; he never gives up trying to escape; he is faithful to his wife; he always remembers who he is and what he wants to return to.

"Man's Inhumanity to Man"

Northup reveals just how awful man can be to man. The lucrativeness of slavery and concomitant racism created a situation that the South jealously guarded. In order to keep it intact, many felt that black people must be stripped of all rights and must be frightened or manipulated into working hard and knowing their artificially subordinate place in society. Violence and abuse of all kinds began to come naturally to slaveowners, for deep down they were aware of the flimsiness of their claims that slavery was a positive force. Fear of rebellion also stoked their increasingly cruel treatment of slaves, and when violence went on for so long unchecked, it became the norm. Man's baser impulses — such as greed, selfishness, and desire for power — cannot easily be ignored or quelled in the context of slavery.

Slavery's Corrupting Influence

Not only was slavery problematic for the African Americans caught in its grasp, but, Northup writes, it also corrupted any and all in its path — including white people. It made white people who were otherwise kind or moral into tyrants. It raised children in an environment where brutal treatment of slaves was considered the norm. Violence, sexual abuse, and cruelty were de rigeuer on many plantations; owning slaves and doing what one wanted with them was seen as right and normal. Even the generous and Christian Mr. Ford was raised in this milieu. Mrs. Epps was otherwise a wonderful woman, but she was corrupted by having power over Patsey, the slave with whom her husband had relations. Overall, slavery was bad for the economy and environment of the South, bad for free labor, bad for slaves, and bad for the white people who participated in it.

The Dignity and Humanity of Slaves

Northup does not depict slaves as mindless cogs in the machine of plantation slavery: rather, they are alive and unique. They may vary in terms of their intellect and personality, but they understand their conditions, desire freedom, and seek to make their lives as meaningful as possible even when their autonomy is limited in all respects. They form relationships, make a little money on the side, rebel and/or try to escape, play music, dance, share stories, and ultimately reveal their humanity. This allows his work to resonate with readers in that they can recognize the "characters" as authentic human beings.

Abolitionism

The text makes it seem as though Northup knew it would become a core part of the abolitionist movement in the North. He doesn't hit readers over the head with this, but his descriptions of the terrible things slaves endure, the corrupting influence of the system on white people, the problems for free labor, the hypocrisies of the system in light of the nation's founding principles, and the normalization of family disintegration seem to be calculated to shock and move readers to action. Northup is entirely forthright and thorough; he does not lie or omit or embellish. His work needed to be solid so it could be touted by abolitionists as a visceral example of why slavery must be abolished. Almost every page echoes with Northup's firm belief that slavery was immoral and untenable.

Twelve Years a Slave Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Twelve Years a Slave is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Why did Solomon carve his initials into the tin cups?

Solomon cut their initials into the tin cups they were given aboard ship.

With a small pocket knife that had not been taken from me, I began cutting the initials of my name upon the tin cup. The others immediately flocked round me, requesting me...

This question is far too involved for a short-answer. I suggest you begin by reading through GradeSaver's theme page for the unit.

What is the symbolism of the the sentence,

The "monsters" represent the white men who lured Solomon away.

Study Guide for Twelve Years a Slave

Twelve Years a Slave study guide contains a biography of Solomon Northup, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Twelve Years a Slave
• Twelve Years a Slave Summary
• Character List

Essays for Twelve Years a Slave

Twelve Years a Slave essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup.

• A Literary Analysis of Twelve Years a Slave

Lesson Plan for Twelve Years a Slave

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Twelve Years a Slave
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Twelve Years a Slave Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for Twelve Years a Slave

• Introduction

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SLAVERY IN AMERICAN LITERATURE: TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE

Abstract KRÁLIKOVÁ, Lenka: Slavery in American Literature: Twelve Years a Slave [Master´s Thesis] University of SS. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava. Faculty of Arts. Department of British and American Studies – Supervisor: Mgr. Diana Židová, PhD. Degree of Professional Qualification: Master. - Trnava: FF UCM, 2016. 79 p. The main aim of my thesis is the answer to the following questions: How was slavery represented in literature, what was the purpose of the slave narrative in “Twelve years a slave” by Solomon Northup. The thesis has four parts. First part describes slavery in America from its beginning through the gradual development of the system until the abolition. The second part of the paper is description of the slave narrative and other slave narrators with their works. Biography of the author is the main topic of the third part. Last part of the thesis is the analysis of the novel from the point of view of the representation of slavery in the literature and its translations in the Middle European literature. Key words: Religion. Slavery. Slave Narrative. Rescue. Interpretation. American history.

Related Papers

The thesis deals with representations of slavery in three modern American novels, showing that &quot;the peculiar institution&quot; remains an important topic for those contemporary writers who choose to revise the past in their works. Slavery&#39;s depiction in literature is emphasised by explaining the structure and objectives of slave narratives, historical novels, and neo-slave narratives. By analysing six recurring themes that all three novelists employ, the thesis explains what motivates these writers to include slavery as a central topic in their works. These themes are: women slaves as narrative protagonists; the unbalanced relationship between master(s) and slave(s); the difficult situation of the children resulting from these relationships; violence and physical pain as experienced by the institution&#39;s victims; slave rebellions and runaways; and religion in connection with the role it played in forming slaves&#39; beliefs, attitudes and values, but also as a justificat...

ansor putra , Suci Pardilla

Pratama Mukti

As racism happened recently, the writer is interested to write about this topic research. 12 Years a Slave is an autobiography written by Solomon Northup after he was free from slavery. The autobiography is about Solomon Northup’s life during his slavery for twelve years along with other African-Americans. Since this is autobiography, the writer reads frequently to find out the act of racism from racist characters. The writer uses intrinsic elements to find out the setting, character, plot, and theme analysis. The results of the analysis show that the racist characters are mostly from Southern America. African-Americans are sometimes kidnapped from Northern America such as Solomon Northup and sold into slavery. The slaves get threatened verbally and physically to humiliate them by their masters. In this case, Solomon and other African-Americans are whipped, beaten, and stripped by white people. The other act is calling a name by stereotype. The African-Americans are sometimes called...

Mary Niall Mitchell

JURNAL ILMU BUDAYA

abbas abbas

This article discusses the social facts experienced by Americans in literature, especially novel. Literary work as a social documentation imagined by the author is a reflection of the values of a nation or ethnicity. The main objective of research is to trace the reality of slavery that occurred in America as a social fact in literary works. This research is useful in strengthening the sociological aspects of literary works as well as proving that literary works save a social reality at the time so that readers are able to judge literary works not merely as fiction, but also as social documentation. The writer in this study uses one of the literary research methods, namely Genetic Structuralism Approach. This method emphasizes three main aspects, namely literary work, the background of the author&#39;s life, and social reality. Novel Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl written by Harriet Ann Jacobs in 1858 was used as primary research data, then a number of references about the au...

Maria Helena Lima

Jacques Coulardeau

The main interest of the book is of course the “autobiographical testimony” it contains. But this particular edition is enriched with notes and various appendices written by the two editors. These notes and appendices create a real perspective providing all available documents or press clippings about most elements the book contains and we cannot be aware of today. The people who are named are then expanded with concrete information and data about who they were and what they did. The events that are mentioned are thoroughly documented from the press of the time and from all available registers and alternative testimonies. The notes and appendices turn the “biographical testimony” into a document that can be considered as mostly truthful beyond the personal vision the author provides us with, for example the fact that he only sees one side of Louisiana as we will mention later, the American takeover and their practice of slavery as chattel exploitation. Solomon Northup could of course not know better and is well forced to ignore the French or Spanish conceptions.

Audrey Metzger

Sangita Ghodake

The main theme of the present paper is the socio-economic, religious and psychosomatic encounters in the literature written about the Slaves and the Oppressed. The paper is an attempt to explore psychosomatic and socio-economic consequences of the forced slave trade of eighteenth century through literature of the sufferers of Africa and America. Eighteenth century has been condemned for the scars and stigma of full-fledged slave trade. The European nations and the American States were the dominant players of the cruel inhuman but commercially motivated slave trade and socially and economically weak populace from the continents like Africa were the tragic sufferers. The present paper is divided into four parts: (i) origins of slavery, (ii) slave trade and its religious implications in Africa and America, (iii) the survey of the slave narratives with illustrations of healing the scars of slavery from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and (iv) present day scenario of neo slavery. The paper attempts to elaborate socio-economic and religious interests of the masters and psychosomatic problems of the slaves of the eighteenth century. All the philosophers and social reformers have guided the humanity by being virtuous. The concluding part will try to highlight guiding principle and spiritual path of enlightenment shown by Mahatma Gandhi from India, Martin Luther King Junior from the USA, Nelson Mandela from South Africa and Dalai Lama from Tibet by becoming non-violent and righteous.

OAH Magazine of History

James Basker

One of the challenges faced by history teachers seeking to use literary texts in their classes is the apparent dearth of literature about slavery before the nine teenth century. The focus on such works as Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) and Frederick Douglass's Narrative (1845), even on the less familiar writings of William Lloyd Garri son in the 1830s and the antislavery poet John Greenleaf Whittier (1807 1892), has left many people (including textbook publishers) with the impression that there was little attention to slavery in literature before about 1820 or so. This was one of the motives behind my effort to compile a collection of literature about slavery from earlier centuries which, after ten years of research, has resulted in a new book, AMAZING GRACE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF POEMS ABOUT SLAVERY 1660-1810.

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