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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
A powerful slave narrative about a free man in New York who is abducted and forced into slavery in Louisiana. He recounts the daily brutality and travails of life in slavery.
This found it's way to my tbr because of the movie based on it. Obviously, the events are horrific, but somehow, the narrative just didn't grip me like I thought it would. Still, a decent read.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Must-read!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Gaslighting, Colonisation
Wow. This was a powerful read about the injustice down to a free black man was kidnapped and sold into slavery for 12 years. Northrup's genuine experiences and observations are heartrending, but even he recognizes that while there were "evil white men/masters", there were kind and benevolent ones too. There were ones who would twist Scripture (Bible) to justify slavery and the slaves' inhumane treatment and that the masters were "lords", but there were ones like Ford, who out of kindness and love he sought from God, poured out the same loving kindness onto his slaves. And their were God-fearing men like Bass who believed that the color of the soul was the same for everyone, that slavery should be abolished, and that ALL men/women were created equal both in the Declaration of Independence and Bible. He was the hero and it made my heart warm to see this man risk everything to help Northrup, a free man. The injustice acts against so many of the people, such as Patsey, driven by lust and jealousy was awful. And Northrup being apart from his family for all those years. It was just wonderful that he, also a God -fearing man, was able to be reunited with his family once more.
Most of this book was incredibly interesting - it is not often that you get a firsthand account from someone who lived through slavery. The author was really able to bring that time to life - the good, the bad, and the very very bad. There were also portions of this book that went into great detail about the logistics of planting and harvesting cotton and sugar cane, as well as creating traps and tools to use on the plantation. This part I found more dry, however if you know the details about how such things are done today, this history might be more interesting to you.
Five words to describe this book: slavery, american racial history, farming, memoir
Five words to describe this book: slavery, american racial history, farming, memoir
Audio- Louis Gossett, Jr. was an incredible narrator for a story that should never have been allowed to happen to anyone.
This was published around the same time as Uncle Tom's Cabin, and could be a companion book, although probably not read in rapid succession, just for the emotional turbulence.
A book that should be read.
This was published around the same time as Uncle Tom's Cabin, and could be a companion book, although probably not read in rapid succession, just for the emotional turbulence.
A book that should be read.
This book can earn nothing less than 5 stars, for its content alone. The fact that it is a memoir of Solomon Northup's true experience as a free man from NY being captured and enslaved made me hang on every sorrowful word. To me, his words were factual, descriptive, dignified, and told a tale in a linear fashion. I don't believe that Solomon ever set out to be a literary expert or a novelist, but rather was compelled to tell his story to get the word out about the cruelty of slavery in the United States. Some feel that there are better written books with better descriptions of slavery out there, and that may be so. Solomon did not have paper available to him, so every word was written as he played back the trauma and brutality of those 12 years. At times, Northup actually stated in his book that he would "put a veil" over a scene to allow the reader to better imagine. In this regard I feel that he was protecting the reader from the horrors he experienced and possibly safeguarding himself from reliving, in detail, his own horrific trauma.