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1.46k reviews for:
Twelve Years a Slave: Including; Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Solomon Northup, Frederick Douglass
4.23 AVERAGE
1.46k reviews for:
Twelve Years a Slave: Including; Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Solomon Northup, Frederick Douglass
4.23 AVERAGE
Wow! I am way overdue to watch the movie now. This book, although nonfiction, is horror. I got chills as I read, knowing that it was a true story.
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had wat moeite met de moeilijke taal, maar vind het wel de moeite waard om later opnieuw te proberen!
Wow, such an eye-opening read. I highly recommend this book. Haven't seen the movie yet but I will watch the movie now that I've read the book. This book is very well done and really breaks your heart reading it but is also such an eye-opening read to how the times were back then.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
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inspiring
reflective
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adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
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emotional
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medium-paced
A vital contribution to the body of slave narrative literature, this memoir provided a perspective I had heard comparatively little about--a free Black man living in the North who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the South, for whom the due process of law actually works for once (albeit slowly and imperfectly), and who is eventually restored to his family. I know the first half of that was fairly common, but the latter half was incredibly rare, so reading about Northrup's legal escape at the end almost had a surreal feel. The descriptions of cotton and cane farming were useful and important, but also a bit dry and hard to follow; I'm sure historians eat up those details, though. The rest was all the more moving for Northrup's restrained way of relating his tragic experiences. I wanted to know what happened to Northrup in later years, but there's very little information, which is suprising since he was quite a public figure for a while after his return. Some have thought he was kidnapped and sold back into slavery again (I can't think of anything more horrible), while others have said that's unlikely since his age would not have made him a tempting sale at that point.
I can't put into words how this book made me feel. It is something that must be experienced, if only to catch a glimpse of what he experienced. 12 years is a long time, and Solomon Northrup is a better man than I am, better than many people would have been in his situation, and I love his detailed account of the lifestyle and culture, and his deep rooted honesty, even when he made mistakes, and was afraid, and despaired at the thought that he might never be free again. How many millions of tales of slavery have we lost to time? I am very grateful that at least, through this firsthand account, something positive and enlightening came out of such a terrible experience.