Solomon Northup

It's difficult to sum up the twelve years of anguish and agony experienced by Solomon Northup when he was a free man living in New York, swindled, kidnapped, and enslaved - for twelve years. Written in the 1800s by Mr. Northrup and brought to our modern attention in 2013, Twelve Years a Slave is remarkably written, such good and proper King's English, so flowing and beautiful, his words, so savage and unconscionable his treatment. We should all take a lesson from Mr. Northup in his ability to lean into his situation yet never give up hope. He survived the worst of the worst and lived to reunite with his wife and children and tell the tale. We, humans, have done some awful things; slavery is one of the worst, and as a white American, I hang my head.… (més)

"Life is dear to every living thing; the worm that crawls upon the ground will struggle for it."

Solomon Northup was born a free man in the state of New York, married, had three children who along with his wife was creative enough to scrape together an income. When two men invite Solomon to travel with them to Washington with the promise of money, he quickly agrees to join them. Unfortunately, whilst there he was kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841. Once crossing to the Southern States, he knew that nobody would believe he was a free man and those who did, would most likely kill him rather than set him free. So for twelve years he kept his mouth shut and played the role of Platt the slave on different plantations in Louisiana.

Solomon/Platt had different owners, while some treated him with humanity, others were mere brutes and unnecessarily cruel who actually tried to kill him more than once. Solomon first works at a cotton plantation but is later hired out to sugar cane plantations where he is way more productive. He helped to build new houses and other buildings, he stands out for his cleverness and violin skills until he finally met someone whom he believed that he could truly trust and help him reclaim his freedom.

This book was written back in 1853 shortly after his release from slavery but isn't just another testimony written by a slave, in this memoir we see the facts through the eyes of a free man that was forced into slavery. Solomon Northup was obviously an educated man, the prose is generally easy to read, but he can spend five pages detailing the various stages of cotton growing. However, on the slightly down side this story was written as a report and therefore has a certain lack of passion, meaning that there seemed to be a certain disconnect between the cruelty inflicted and the suffering felt. There are also quite a few religious references scattered throughout which along with the previous point can make it feel a little dry at times. However, this is still a powerful read and without doubt a must read for anyone who is interested in reading about slavery and a dark side of America's history. .

"What difference is there in the colour of the soul."… (més)