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 in Rhode Island.

They belong to the family by the name of Northup. His father, Mintus Northup, slave-owner on his death will releasing him as a free man (pg 6).

Solomon having been born a freeman, an educated black man and a musician who got kidnapped and sold into slavery as an adult, a family man. Waking up in a slave pen, chained from his wrists to his ankle and confused that how he ended up in that place. He told his kidnappers his identity but what he got was tortured, beaten with paddle and whip. Northup got sold to a slave trader James Burch and He created a new identity for Northup which his new name is ‘Platt’. He refused for a while and until he came to understanding that to stay alive is by following his master order. Northup met with few slaves during his captivity and there’s a woman named Eliza has 2 children who got sold to the same master but Eliza got separated from her children. She begged master ‘Ford’ to keep them together but Burch didn’t allowed it. His master’Ford’, praised him for his knowledge and talent, and later on sold him to ‘Tibeats’ because of his debt. Tibeats is the worst master, he has short tempered and loves to tortured his slave for any reasons. Northup tried many times to escape from his master until he succeeded and got shelter from his previous master ‘Ford’.

He got sold to a new master ‘Epps’ and he’s worse than all of his masters. He tortured his slave for his own satisfaction. During his slavery there he met a Canadian man ‘Bass’  who his only hope for freedom and eventually he helped him with mailing his letters to his family in Saratoga Spring. After being a slave for 12 years he finally got saved. The others slavery story that I know, they were mostly brought from their own country as a slave since they were a young age or taken from their family by force and after a while they trying to escape from slavery many times until they’re in adulthood or die in the process of getting their freedom.The treatment that Solomon experience as a slave is very similar with others man slaves which is mostly horrifying, tormenting physical abuse and for woman slaves they have to endure the sexual abuse from their masters. For young age skales usually they become slave for their masters children and the treatment they received similar to the adult. All this cruelty is normal for the slave-owner, they’ll never got punished for abusing the slave.

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