Twelve years a slave. Narrative of Solomon Northup, a citizen of New-York,… (1853 original; edició 1853)

Powerful and horrific account of slavery, when the New York author- a free man, a husband and father, earning a living labouring and playing the violin, is kidnapped and sold into the sugar and cotton mills of Louisiana.
He describes a succession of "owners" - from the reasonable to the psychopathic- a host of tragic stories of those other slaves he meets; and eventually, thanks to a sympathetic white visitor, the intervention of the law to restore his freedom...though the reader is well aware that no legislation could help his former fellow slaves.
Makes the white reader stop and ponder - with shame and horror- just what was done by our ancestors; ( )

Hard to rate something like this. I certainly cannot rate for enjoyment. Reading this made me burn in anger and my eyes water. Despite the cruel, dehumanizing events, this was not an easy read, but it was easy to read. It only takes a few times to get used to Northup’s manner of speaking. I almost read it all in one sitting.

In light of recent events, those who say “This is not who America is,” surely have their head in the ground. Of course, this place can be better—should be better—but it was built on mass racism, enslavement, and genocide.

Anyway, I’m glad to have seen this in book form because I certainly could not have seen it visually.
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Incredible story. I read this after seeing the movie, and I'm surprised to see that nearly all of the same elements are there, with perhaps a few minor tweaks combining some of Solomon's overseers/owners into fewer personalities, more suitable for film. About the only noticeable scene that's missing from the movie is Solomon's stopover in Washington during the return trip to sue Burch -- not the most painful of Solomon's experiences, but quite possibly the most frustrating.

As for the book itself, Solomon's tale is highly readable still today. The narrative is fast paced, yet provides sufficient detail to give a good sense of the people who made up a significant part of Solomon's life for that rather long interstice of enslavement. I was also intrigued at Solomon's interjections and descriptions of the institution of slavery, which he described as a complex system full of masters and mistresses who are variously benevolent and baneful, pious and puerile, magnanimous and megalomaniacal. Solomon's commentary on the system is as nuanced as it is unforgiving, being critical without becoming too -- tract-y, for lack of a better word. At the end he even acknowledges that if there is any fault of his story, it is that he highlighted "too prominently the bright side of the picture," a sentiment which it would be much too understated to call unexpected at best.

While not always a happy story, this is definitely a great one.

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A personal account of slavery in the 1840s South. ( )

I did not see the film made of this book until after I read the book. I will make a few comments about the two at the end.

This is an extraordinary story, although apparently what happened to Solomon Northrup - the kidnapping, not so much the release - was quite common. This book is extraordinary because it was actually written at the time, because the facts in it have been verified to the extent possible, because it is available now, after languishing for so many years. And because it is such a good book.

Northrup was a black man born in the north, a free man. Born in 1808, he married 21 years later and was a successful happy father when he was kidnapped in 1841. He quickly learned that it was fruitless to tell others who he was, that he was not an escaped slave from the south but rather a successful businessman from New York and Washington. He learned to adapt to a different name and a different history just to stay alive.

Owned by both good and bad slave owners, Northrup had the bad fortune to spend most of his twelve years of slavery under the bad ones. And by bad I mean horrific. Slaves were worked long hours every day, yet to cook or eat or dress they had to work for wages on their Sundays so they could buy cooking implements or anything else they needed. Food was short and often rancid or filled with maggots. Yet they were expected to produce at high levels for full long days in the sun. When a slave flagged at all, he or she was whipped.

Northrup describes a few incidents that seem incredible. If this were fiction I would have thought, "oh sure, that would happen". For example, as a free boy and man he became a good swimmer. Slaves were not allowed to learn to swim because they might escape that way. There came a time when Northrup essentially saved his own life because of this skill. Similarly, he crafted a contraption to trap fish from a river, keeping him and his fellow slaves from starving. It was because he had self-confidence, a good education, and good experience that he was able to do this.

It was, of course, this education that gave us this book. Northrup writes well, particularly for a person not experienced in writing as a career, and writing at a time when editing was not particularly common. He tells the story with no self-pity, does not linger on horrors and tragedies, simply tells it plainly, which has amazing power.

Northrup was always looking for a way to get his story to the right people. He knew many who would help if they knew where he was. Finally he was able to do so with the help of a builder who worked for himself and who held rather different views on slavery than the typical southern white man. It was through the efforts of this man that he was rescued twelve years after his kidnapping. Northrup became quite famous at the time, was sought out for speeches and articles, but eventually the excitement died down and the rest of his life went unrecorded.

I found the movie version remarkably close to the book in the basic incidents and people. In some cases details were changed for greater drama. At other times I felt the film actually drew back some from what it must have been like. In general I felt the book had a greater impact, was more memorable and more horrific.

Although it contains incidents that are hard to read about, the book never lingers and therefore can be read easily. It's worth it.
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