12 Years A Slave Essay

It is difficult for a person with compassion to fathom the object of slavery.Why would one man subject another man to torment?Why would anyone exercise their authority over another like human being?Why would any human being kidnap, flog and sell another into bondage?These and many other questions surround the subject of slavery as it reared its ugly head in the southern slave states of America.The account rendered by Solomon Northup gives us a glimpse into the daily life of a slave.

His writings shed light upon the varying ways in which slave masters managed their “property.”It also revealed how slaves resisted terrorism inflicted upon them by their owners.

It is inconceivable that a freeman, such as Northup, would be captured and sold into slavery.Yet, as the story unfolds, the craftiness of men and their ability to little by little lull even the brightest of men into the den of iniquity becomes apparent.Enticed by Brown & Hamilton to play violin for their circus acts in New-York, Northup innocently falls victim to a much deeper and more diabolical scheme.

After being drugged, hauled to a cell in Washington, a slave state no-less, and chained, Northup was still oblivious to the torturous fate that awaited him.The slave-trader Burch tortured him with a paddle until it broke and then followed with the cat-o-nine-tails.He whipped him because Northup would not deny he was a free man.“His brutal blows could not force from my lips the foul lie that I was a slaveMy sufferings I can compare to nothing else than the burning agonies of hell! (25).

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Burch said that if he dared to utter another word about his entitlement to freedom, being kidnapped, or the like, “he swore he would either conquer or kill (him)” (26).This first incident of terrorism in Northup’s life proved to silence himm well enough.But, it did not prevent him from continually think of ways to escape his circumstances and return to his fami…

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