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TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE BY SOLOMON NORTHUP: A CRITICAL REVIEW 2007 Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup: A Critical Review INTRODUCTION Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup is a book which holds incredible significance and importance. This autobiography of the author, Northup, tells the story of how he was kidnapped in the year 1841 and spent the next 12 years in captivity, and yet at the same time it does more than simply tell the dramatic and heart wrenching story of his life, as it also speaks quite detailed about the slave life and plantation society as well as other key and related facts and issues in this regards. Northup's memory proves to be incredibly remarkable, as he goes into specific detail in regards to various different issues, such as the cultivation of cotton and sugar in the Deep South, and the daily routine and lifestyle that was the Negro slaves typical life. In order to not only understand the book itself better but as well the author himself there are several questions in particular which will be addressed in this review: What was Northup's life like before slavery, how did he become a slave and how did he finally escape? What was slave life like on the plantations? What were some of Northup's many near-death experiences?
By thoroughly examining and addressing the answers to these three questions in particular, we will be able to come to a much more knowledgeable and understanding viewpoint in regards to both the work itself and the author. WHAT WAS NORTHUPS LIFE LIKE BEFORE SLAVERY, HOW DID HE BECOME A SLAVE AND HOW DID HE FINALLY ESCAPE? Before slavery, Solomon Northup's life was basically just like any other. The son of an emancipated slave, Northup lived a rather simple and quiet life, had a wife, Anne Hampton, and three children and lived in upstate New York, and most importantly, he was a free man.
After his marriage to Anne, he began working with others to repair the Champlain Canal, and he was making a substantial amount of money for that time anyway and things were going well. Good employment was incredibly difficult to get and maintain during those times after all, especially for people of color, and so Northup was thus obviously very happy about his situation at that point. He was making enough to support his family well, and he was enjoying the work that he was doing and the people that he was working alongside. After this he entered into contracts for the transportation of large rafts of timber from Lake Champlain to Troy, and he states near the beginning of the book in this regards that During the season I became perfectly familiar with the art and mysteries of rafting a knowledge which afterwards enabled me to render profitable service to a worthy master, and to astonish the simple-witted lumbermen on the banks of the Bayou Boeuf (Northup, 2000: 23). He was happy and loving life and nothing at all was really out of the ordinary, and no one would have expected or foreseen coming what was about to take place in his life. The bizarre events that occurred which made him a slave are in fact so out of this world that they make for one of the main reasons as to why this autobiography is such a wonder and awe to read; briefly what happened was that Northup had accepted an offer from two strangers in Saratoga, New York they had offered him the opportunity to go with them to their traveling circus and play in its band, however this was all a lie.
Rather than taking him where they had promised, the two men drugged and callously and viciously beat Northup, and then sold him to a slave trader in Washington, D. C. Subsequently, he was shipped to New Orleans, where he was purchased by a planter in the Red River region of Louisiana. For the next twelve years Northup lived as a chattel slave under several masters (Eakin & Logsdon, 2006). The disaster and unimaginable horrifically brutal way that Northup lived during this time was astounding and frightful, and he might as well have died a slave, as there was no way that he was going anywhere. However, there were another set of incredibly bizarre events that actually took place which are what caused him to be able to finally escape from this horrendous life.
What happened was that Northup was able to get a letter to his wife, and thus get word to his family of where he was and what was happening to him, and this information got into the right hands and he was finally able to regain his freedom. WHAT WAS SLAVE LIFE LIKE ON THE PLANTATION? Northup speaks fluently throughout the majority of the book in regards to what slave life was like on the plantations, and although we see that during the entire time he somehow managed to keep a rather optimistic attitude, the life that was depicted by him was so intense and horrific that it is hard for anyone to imagine. He was chained up for the majority of the time, and when he woke up the first time after he had gone with the two strangers and realized that he had been fooled, and saw that he was imprisoned in a dungeon, he could not believe it, and as he stated in the book I felt of my pockets, so far as the fetters would allow far enough, indeed, to ascertain that I had not only been robbed of my liberty, but that my money and free papers were also gone! (Northup, 2006: 38). He was bound and beaten every day for those twelve years that he spent imprisoned as a slave, and one of the most common ways that he was beaten was with a paddle, which as Northup describes in the book was a piece of hard-wood board, eighteen or twenty inches long, molded to the shape of an old-fashioned pudding stick, or ordinary oar. The flattened portion, which was about the size in circumference of two open hands, was bored with a small auger in numerous places.
The cat was a large rope of many strands the strands unraveled, and a knot tied at the extremity of each. (2006: 44). His feet were fastened to the floor, he would typically be put downwards over a bench, and then they would commence the beating, blow after blow thrashing painfully down on his naked body. The beatings were so brutal and ferocious that even Northup himself was surprised that he had made it through some of them. WHAT WERE SOME OF NORTHUPS NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES? Northup went through many different near-death experiences during his time of Imprisonment and a large majority of them were in regards to the devastating beatings that he received so frequently usually several times a day. As he stated in his book after one beating in particular, By this time I had become stiff and sore; my body was covered with blisters, and it was with great pain and difficulty that I could move (Northup, 2006: 47).
However, even through all of these horrifically close to death experiences that he went through, it was the thought of his wife and children that kept him going and thus which kept him alive through it all. CONCLUSION From this review, we can conclude many different things, several in particular. One, we can see just how difficult slave life was like on the plantations, how hard they had it, and all of the trials and tribulations that they went through, not only in general, but on a daily basis. The beatings and devastation that they were put through is unimaginable, and the way that Northup was able to portray and tell of this saddening reality is truly awing. As well, by answering the three previously noted questions specifically, we have been able to see the life of Solomon Northup, and honest, considerate, and generous man, who used his family as hope in order to pull him through and keep him alive during those twelve horrific years he spent imprisoned as a slave after being tricked by two seemingly harmless strangers who he had thought were offering him help. Although Northup's story is so fantastical that it is almost hard to believe as being true, it has actually been carefully checked by the editors and has been found to be incredibly accurate.
Northup was a shrewd observer of people and events, and his memory was remarkable (Eakin & Logsdon, 2006). This literary work is absolutely one of the best and most detailed of its kind, and really allows every reader to be able to gain a frighteningly realistic understanding in regards to what the slave life and his life was like. Bibliography Eakin, Sue & Logsdon, Joseph. Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup. 2006. 4 March 2007 web Northup, Solomon. Twelve Years a Slave. NY: Dover Publications, 2007.
Spartacus. USA History: Slavery in the United States. 2006. 4 March 2007 web
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