You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
1.45k reviews for:
Twelve Years a Slave: Including; Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Solomon Northup, Frederick Douglass
4.23 AVERAGE
1.45k reviews for:
Twelve Years a Slave: Including; Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Solomon Northup, Frederick Douglass
4.23 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
The film sent me to the book, which I expected to struggle to read. Not a bit of it. It's a compelling story, and rings true. The narrator's voice comes through strong and true despite the lapse of time, distance, attitudes, social mores, culture, and writing style. And how pleasing that the film represents it so well.
Northup was intelligent, skilled, and incredibly strong. His story is one that should be read by everyone, something we should never forget.
Beautifully written, and as is usually the case, covers so much more than the movie. While the subject matter is, of course, appalling, it's an undeniable part of our country's history, written with remarkable eloquence.
As an animal-rights advocate, I have always felt there is a parallel to be drawn to the treatment of slaves, Jews during WWII, etc, with the treatment and domination of animals that occurs to this day. Page 125 of my copy of this book within Chapter 13 states:
"The existence of slavery in its most cruel form among them, has a tendency to brutalize the humane and finer feelings of their [humans'] nature. Daily witnesses of human suffering - listening to the agonizing screeches of the slave - beholding him writhing beneath the merciless lash - bitten and torn by dogs - dying without attention and buried without shroud or coffin - it cannot otherwise be expected, than that they should become brutified and reckless of human life." ... "It is not the fault of the slaveholder that he is cruel, so much as it is the fault of the system under which he lives. He cannot withstand the influence of habit and associations that surround him. Taught from earliest childhood, by all that he sees and hears, that the rod is for the slave's back, he will not be apt to change his opinions in maturer years." ~ Solomon Northup.
Replace the words "human" and "slave" with the word "animal," and it cannot be denied that we've been doing to animals what has been done, and continues on many places, to be done to humans. There can be no differentiating between the suffering of humans and that of animals. Both feel pain. Both just want to live.
While this narrative was certainly not written for the purpose of drawing this parallel, its lessons are there for the taking. What was shameful then is still shameful today, and like those who braved insults and injury when speaking out to end human slavery, I will not back down on declaring this parallel.
As for Mr. Northup's story, it is nothing short of amazing.
As an animal-rights advocate, I have always felt there is a parallel to be drawn to the treatment of slaves, Jews during WWII, etc, with the treatment and domination of animals that occurs to this day. Page 125 of my copy of this book within Chapter 13 states:
"The existence of slavery in its most cruel form among them, has a tendency to brutalize the humane and finer feelings of their [humans'] nature. Daily witnesses of human suffering - listening to the agonizing screeches of the slave - beholding him writhing beneath the merciless lash - bitten and torn by dogs - dying without attention and buried without shroud or coffin - it cannot otherwise be expected, than that they should become brutified and reckless of human life." ... "It is not the fault of the slaveholder that he is cruel, so much as it is the fault of the system under which he lives. He cannot withstand the influence of habit and associations that surround him. Taught from earliest childhood, by all that he sees and hears, that the rod is for the slave's back, he will not be apt to change his opinions in maturer years." ~ Solomon Northup.
Replace the words "human" and "slave" with the word "animal," and it cannot be denied that we've been doing to animals what has been done, and continues on many places, to be done to humans. There can be no differentiating between the suffering of humans and that of animals. Both feel pain. Both just want to live.
While this narrative was certainly not written for the purpose of drawing this parallel, its lessons are there for the taking. What was shameful then is still shameful today, and like those who braved insults and injury when speaking out to end human slavery, I will not back down on declaring this parallel.
As for Mr. Northup's story, it is nothing short of amazing.
It was easy to read, and its content was shocking. Like Northup says, fiction could not paint a more terrible picture of slavery.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
I really couldn't give this less than five stars. In one way it was horrible to read, but it was the truth of Solomon Northup's life.
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
The language got a bit difficult to follow at times, but it was a heart wrenching story, definitely a must-read.