Baylee Reeves Review English 2010 Prof. Lewis 27 Feb.

. 2014 12 Years a Slave The story of Solomon Northups life was a tragic one, beginning in 1841 and ending in 1853. It was twelve years of unjust abuse, tragedy, hopelessness, and slavery. This film, directed by Steve McQueen and inspired by the book written by Solomon Northup himself, 12 Years A Slave, uncovers the harsh realities of a free black man kidnapped into slavery. The film begins with a brief introduction into what happened to Solomon for a short time while he was a slave. This five-minute introduction is wordless; it just simply uncovers the emotion and horrors experienced without using any words. Soon, it dives into Solomons life in 1841. He was successful; he was living in Saratoga, New York, he was a free black man with a family, a job, and he was extremely talented at playing the violin. His entire community recognized his talent, and soon enough two traveling men heard of his talent. They were so intrigued that they begged him to tour with them for money. Solomon would soon agree, and they would make their way to Washington. After a great gig, Solomon and his colleagues would go out to celebrate. They had great food, and a lot of wine. On their way back to the hotel, Solomon was not feeling right, he was extremely sick and out of it. The two men dragged him back to the hotel, and when he woke up, his life changed drastically. He found himself in a cell; four walls and a bolted door. He tried quickly to get up, and he soon discovered that his hands and feet were chained to the floor. He screamed for help, and

the door broke open. As the man came in, Solomon begged and pleaded to free him, since he was a freed black man. The white man would not listen to a word Solomon would say, he beat him with a paddle until it broke and screamed, Yah slave! Yah a Georgia Slave! and Solomon would deny it every single time, and Burch, the white man, would continue to beat him, now with a whip. From this day on out, Solomon would be known as Platt, the Georgia slave. His new identity changed him and as the years went on he lost the Solomon he was, and converted into the Platt that the white southern society made him. As the film begins, it starts to bring out all the horrors and trials these African people experience. The first place of Solomons new identity as a slave was held in Washington where he was kidnapped. These black people were treated just as animals; they were bathed naked in front of everyone and were watched as they cleaned themselves. The white men would treat them as pieces of property; they would talk to them as if they were not even human. They were soon dragged in a wagon to a dock, where they would be shipped to the southern states to be sold into slavery. On the boat there, a white man goes to take advantage of an African woman, and as an African man strives to protect this woman, he soon gets stabbed and killed. This was the first horrifying display of brutality that Solomon witnessed, and after witnessing, he had to dump this mans dead body over the boat and into the ocean. As soon as they docked, Solomon saw what he was in for. He saw slaves sitting by the shore with scars all over their bodies and faces. He saw missing limbs, swollen eyes, and huge gashes on the backs of the Africans. As the camera comes

back in focus of Solomon, you can see all the faith he once had leave from his eyes and the dread sets in. They would soon make their way to get bathed and ready to be sold at a secret house, because what they were part of was an illegal scheme. They were placed like art pieces in front of judges, and were picked like candy. Some were completely naked, some clothed, and some shunned. Solomon was chosen to go with a plantation owner by the name of Ford, and chosen with him was a woman who was on the ship with Solomon. This woman, by the name of Eliza, had two children with her, and Ford had lost the bid on both of the children. This destroys her quickly; she begs, pleads, screams to stay with her children. Eventually she would cry, and cry, and cry until they could not take her crying anymore, and would eventually end her life. This happened all in time of being at Fords plantation. Mean while, Solomon was trying to be his very best for Master Ford; he was determined to get back to his old life. There was one obstacle in his way; Master John. At the time, the slaves were working in an area of giant trees, cutting them down for use of building houses. Solomon had a lot of knowledge and know-how for a slave, and Master John did not like it. He took it as a sign of disrespect that a slave acted as if he knew more than a white man. One day on the plantation, Master John screams at Solomon for doing what he was told to do, and John threatens to whip him. Solomon could not take anymore of Johns unjust abuse, and fought back. He took the whip from Johns hands and beat Master John until he begged and pleaded for him to stop. Solomon feared for his life, he had just beaten a white man. Master John rallied up two other men and they went after Solomon, tying his hands and his feet and carrying him to the closest tree. They threw a rope over the hanging limb, and wrapped Solomons neck around it.

They were getting read to lynch him when the manager of the plantation saved Solomons life by ordering the men to stop until Ford had a say in the situation at hand. While waiting for Fords arrival, Solomon stayed half hanging in the tree. He was tiptoeing himself to escape the tug of the rope around his neck. He stayed struggling like this for hours, while plantation workers and slaves walked on by as if nothing were happening. They were so used to this disgusting brutality that they did not even bat an eye, they made no movements to help Solomon. As the night soon came, Master Ford came rushing over and cut the rope swiftly and got Solomon down. Solomon explains the situation and tells Ford that he is really a free black man, but Ford refuses to help him because he has his debt in mind, more than the safety of Solomons life. Solomon would soon be shipped to Edwin Epps plantation, where the horrors of his life truly begin. Edwin Epps plantation was a cotton plantation, and Edwin Epps was an extremely abusive alcoholic. On the first day of arrival, Solomon looks as if he has given up all hope. He is reminded, If you do not obey, you will be beaten with stripes. It would soon show them picking cotton, and if they did not get over the amount they had gotten the day before, they would be whipped. Epps did a lot of strange, abusive things. He would awaken the slaves in the middle of the night and make them dance and play music. In one of these nights, a slave girl named Patsey gets hit by Epps wife, and she demands that Patsey be removed. Epps refuses to rid of Patsey, because Epps is madly in love with Patsey and the feelings are definitely not mutual. Solomon watches as Patsey gets beaten and abused day after day from the angry plantation wife, he undergoes all the whippings from not producing

enough cotton, and experiences first hand the abuse from Epps, and runs to escape the plantation. On his way out of the forest of where this plantation presided, he is stopped. In front of him are three ropes hanging from a tree, at the end of all of them are three blacks mens heads, getting read to be lynched. The man, seemingly the leader, asks Solomon, Come join us, boy. Solomon is completely paralyzed. He exclaims that he is just on his way to run errands for Misses Epps, and they let him on his way. As he his running back, he hears the tightening of ropes and the shrieks from the three mens throats. At this point in time, Solomon has completely given up hope. He has witnessed so many horrors, especially at the Epps plantation and realizes that there is no more hope, there is no point in hoping. This was his new life, and he was stuck in this hell he now called life. Throughout most of the Epps plantation, Solomon witnesses Patsey being assaulted, raped, and abused by Epps himself during the night time. Many of the slaves did, and nothing was done; Epps was never stopped, no one stood up for Patsey. It was as if they had gave in to the reality that was around them, that there was no hope and all this was actually normal, that being treated like property or an animal was completely normal and this was life, this is what they were meant to do. Soon enough, Patsey would come to Solomon in the middle of the night and get Solomon to kill her, to take away all the pain in her life. Solomon of course refuses, and Patsey is left in her despair. It was that horrific for Patsey that she did not want to be alive anymore, that she was begging to be killed to leave this miserable life. Solomon changed plantations for a short while because the cotton was not being produced at Epps plantation, but would soon come back as the cotton did. When he came

back, a white man had started working in the fields with them. At first, it seemed as if this white man actually felt pity for the slaves, it was as if he thought what was happening was unjust and not right. Solomon sees this and sees him as a courteous man, and begs him to send a letter to his family back home. Solomon gives all his trust in this man, because this man is his last hope in his eyes. Days pass, and Solomon is awoken in the night by Epps himself. He is taken outside into a forest with Epps, and is told that the white man had gone to Epps, and had told him everything Solomon had told him and gave him the letter. Solomon brilliantly gets himself out of the situation with keen and cunning insight of why he would do that to Solomon and the real truth in it, even though it was all a lie. He gets freed from Epps tight grip, and as he looks down, Epps had had a giant knife pressed to Solomons side. After this incident, all the faith and hope Solomon had in the letter had gone away. He owns that he is a slave now, and this is witnessed after one of the slaves had fainted and died in the field. They hold a ceremony for this deceased slave, and they all sing by his graveside. Everyone is singing loudly and clearly a song that is cherished by the slaves, and at the beginning Solomon refuses to join them. It was as if he was saying, I am not like you, I am free, I am not a slave! but soon you can see a change in him as he opens his mouth to join the slaves. He sings louder than anyone else and joins them, as if he is literally joining them and accepting that he is, and always will be, a slave. One day on the plantation, Patsey is missing and Epps is screaming and searching for her everywhere. Soon, she comes walking onto the plantation and exclaims that she

was at Shaws plantation, which is Epps figurative rival. Epps asks for the meaning behind it, and she shows him a bar of soap and proclaims, I got this from Mistress Shaw. Mistress Epps won't even grant me no soap ta clean with. Stink so much I make myself gag. Five hundred pounds 'a cotton day in, day out. More than any man here. And 'fo that I will be clean; that all I ax. Dis here what I went to Shaw's 'fo. Epps doesnt believe a word Patsey says, and screams that he is going to whip her. He ties her to a log that is placed upright in the middle of the planation, opens her back so it is bare, and struggles to even lift the whip. He looks to Solomon and orders him to whip Patsey. Solomon refuses and Epps threatens his and other slaves lives. Solomon barely touches her and Epps screams to hit her harder and threatens more horrible things, and Solomon beats her to the point where she cant even stand anymore. After she is beaten, she is taken care of by the other slaves and Solomon stands paralyzed as he watches the African women clean Patseys wounds. Soon after the horrifying incident with Patsey, Solomon is working on a shed on the plantation with a white man by the name of Bass and talks freely with this man from Canada. Epps gets angry at bass for talking to his property and Bass explains on the basis of black and white difference, in the eyes of God, what is the difference?. As Solomon speaks more with Bass, Bass realizes Solomon as an intelligent black man and questions why he is a slave. Solomon soon tells Bass everything and pleads and begs him for his help. He simply asks Bass to send a letter to his family back home in Saratoga, and Bass promises him that he will do everything he can for Solomon. Weeks pass and one day while working on the plantation, two men ride in on a horse and buggy and ask for Solomon Northup. Solomon ran across the field into the arms of the man he

recognized from New York. Epps tried to fight them about the fact that Solomon was really Platt, a slave originally from Georgia, and that he was his property. The men put forward Solomons free papers and put him in the buggy immediately, and as they ride off, Patsey is in the background and collapses to the ground. In this scene, it was as if Solomon was Patseys last hope, and as he was freed, she was too from her life. The horrifying part of it all is that Solomon did not try to save Patsey from the plantation. He just rode off and got his freedom back, raced back to his family and reclaimed his old life, while leaving his slave life behind. He was soon back to his family in Saratoga. In this scene, he looks at his old home that he presided in twelve years ago. As he walks in, his family is all standing in a row in awe of what they see. Solomon is extremely polite and bashful when he sees his family and says, I apologize for my appearance. But I have had a difficult time these past several years. They soon come to him and embrace him, and hold each other while they cry. In these brief moments it all becomes real to him again, his freedom is back. He is the man he was twelve years ago, but things will never be the same. The horror and traumatizing events that Solomon experienced in the twelve years of being a slave would affect him for the rest of his life. He would never be the same again, he would have the mentality of a slave, not a free man, until the day he died. He would have flashbacks of all the horrors and the dread that he went through in those twelve years. The function and point of 12 Years a Slave is to give society the real story of the struggle and realism of slavery. Solomon Northup was an educated black man before his slavery, and he saw life from both sides and after enduring what he went through, he

needed to write it down and he needed people to read it. He wanted to get awareness of how unjust and how disgusting slavery was and that it needed to be ended. His personal memoir of his twelve year experience gave great awareness to America and the world, and it would soon be turned into this brilliant film that portrays the struggles and horrifying events so perfectly that once watched, you will come to the realization of how harsh life was for the African American back in the 1800s.

Northup, Solomon. 12 Years a Slave. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.1997. Web. 12 Years A Slave: Quotes. IMBD. 2 Mar, 2014. Web.

Hornaday, Ann. 12 Years a Slave Movie Review: A Masterpiece of Form, Content, Emotion, and Performance. 17 Oct 2013. Print.

McFarnon, Emma. Historian At the Movies: 12 Years a Slave Reviewed. 13 Jan 2014. Print.