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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
Rating this book less than 5 stars would be doing a disservice to Solomon.
I was amazed and horrified at his story, as well as ashamed that I had never heard of him before the movie based on his book came out. I kept asking myself why this book isn't required reading in all high-school curriculums. It goes against all the traditional narratives that we are taught in school about slavery.
It's incredible that Solomon was not only able to endure the journey of being kidnapped and held a slave for almost 12 years but it's even more amazing that he wrote down his whole experience with the level of detail you'd expect from someone keeping a daily journal.
Solomon's story should be required reading for all Americans, period.
I was amazed and horrified at his story, as well as ashamed that I had never heard of him before the movie based on his book came out. I kept asking myself why this book isn't required reading in all high-school curriculums. It goes against all the traditional narratives that we are taught in school about slavery.
It's incredible that Solomon was not only able to endure the journey of being kidnapped and held a slave for almost 12 years but it's even more amazing that he wrote down his whole experience with the level of detail you'd expect from someone keeping a daily journal.
Solomon's story should be required reading for all Americans, period.
like basically all white americans, I have an overly simplistic idea of what slavery-era america was like for the people experiencing it. obviously I can never know in the sense of having lived or inherited experience, but I'll give an example: Northup's shock at being kidnapped into slavery as a thing that shouldn't have been possible shocked me. for him, a Black man born free in the North, there were sociolegal realities about slavery that meant he never expected to end up experiencing it. for me, a white guy from now, the whole of america from 1492 through 1863 (and further, but for the purposes of this review 1863 is fine) is sorted categorically: white, Black, and Indigenous. the complexities of life in Northup's time are lost on me. this book helped with that.
the other dichotomy that Northup helpfully explodes is that of the slave owner mindset. he writes, for example, of one of the first men who purchased him:
[...]it is but simple justice to him when I say, in my opinion, there never was a more kind, noble, candid, Christian man than William Ford. The influences and associations that had always surrounded him, blinded him to the inherent wrong at the bottom of the system of Slavery. He never doubted the moral right of one man holding another in subjection. Looking through the same medium with his fathers before him, he saw things in the same light. Brought up under other circumstances and other influences, his notions would undoubtedly have been different.
Similarly, of a woman who hires him seasonally to play violin at her parties:
I dwell with delight upon the description of this fair and gentle lady, not only because she inspired me with emotions of gratitude and admiration, but because I would have the reader understand that all slave-owners on Bayou Boeuf are not like Epps, or Tibeats, or Jim Burns.
Northup does not include these passages because he has any misgivings about the ethics of slavery; he does not think there is a right way and a wrong way to own slaves. He stresses this to the reader so that they can recognize the evils of slavery even in situations with very nice white people, which is always a point that desperately needs to be made.He sees that people's actions are shaped by their culture and their time, and that if they could for a moment think beyond their time they would be able to arrive through reason at the monstrosity of their actions. Maybe his time in the North, where slavery was perceived very differently, accounts for this. I think he was just a brilliant thinker, and he could see beyond cultural mores. He writes of several Black people he encountered during slavery who are the same as him in their ability to think about what could be, even when it seems impossible to imagine given the current reality. Even Bass, the white man who colludes with him to rescue him, thinks in this way. At least, he points out, he never met someone who was enslaved who thought it was to their benefit:
They are deceived who flatter themselves that the ignorant and debased slave has no conception of the magnitude of his wrongs. They are deceived who imagine that he arises from his knees, with back lacerated and bleeding, cherishing only a spirit of meekness and forgiveness. A day may come – it will come, if his prayer is heard – a terrible day of vengeance when the master in his turn will cry in vain for mercy.
Finally, Northup is a great thinker and a strong writer. The points he attends to in his story are exactly what a reader wants to hear. Possibly because he wrote this for a Northern abolitionist audience, but he describes his experiences for an audience that could have no conception of them and that means that it is still a relevant document centuries later. He is charismatic, driven, creative, and exciting. His story is not just a history lesson, it is a compelling memoir that lends much-needed nuance to one of the most easily flattened periods of american history. I'll end with one last quote from Northup that shows his excoriating wit as an author and deep-seated rage as a man:
Never did the sun move so slowly through the heavens – never did it shower down such fervent and fiery rays, as it did that day. At least, so it appeared to me. What my meditations were – the innumerable thoughts that thronged through my distracted brain – I will not attempt to give expression to. Suffice it to say, during the whole long day I came not to the conclusion, even once, that the southern slave, fed, clothed, whipped and protected by his master, is happier than the free colored citizen of the North. To that conclusion I have never since arrived.
the other dichotomy that Northup helpfully explodes is that of the slave owner mindset. he writes, for example, of one of the first men who purchased him:
[...]it is but simple justice to him when I say, in my opinion, there never was a more kind, noble, candid, Christian man than William Ford. The influences and associations that had always surrounded him, blinded him to the inherent wrong at the bottom of the system of Slavery. He never doubted the moral right of one man holding another in subjection. Looking through the same medium with his fathers before him, he saw things in the same light. Brought up under other circumstances and other influences, his notions would undoubtedly have been different.
Similarly, of a woman who hires him seasonally to play violin at her parties:
I dwell with delight upon the description of this fair and gentle lady, not only because she inspired me with emotions of gratitude and admiration, but because I would have the reader understand that all slave-owners on Bayou Boeuf are not like Epps, or Tibeats, or Jim Burns.
Northup does not include these passages because he has any misgivings about the ethics of slavery; he does not think there is a right way and a wrong way to own slaves. He stresses this to the reader so that they can recognize the evils of slavery even in situations with very nice white people, which is always a point that desperately needs to be made.He sees that people's actions are shaped by their culture and their time, and that if they could for a moment think beyond their time they would be able to arrive through reason at the monstrosity of their actions. Maybe his time in the North, where slavery was perceived very differently, accounts for this. I think he was just a brilliant thinker, and he could see beyond cultural mores. He writes of several Black people he encountered during slavery who are the same as him in their ability to think about what could be, even when it seems impossible to imagine given the current reality. Even Bass, the white man who colludes with him to rescue him, thinks in this way. At least, he points out, he never met someone who was enslaved who thought it was to their benefit:
They are deceived who flatter themselves that the ignorant and debased slave has no conception of the magnitude of his wrongs. They are deceived who imagine that he arises from his knees, with back lacerated and bleeding, cherishing only a spirit of meekness and forgiveness. A day may come – it will come, if his prayer is heard – a terrible day of vengeance when the master in his turn will cry in vain for mercy.
Finally, Northup is a great thinker and a strong writer. The points he attends to in his story are exactly what a reader wants to hear. Possibly because he wrote this for a Northern abolitionist audience, but he describes his experiences for an audience that could have no conception of them and that means that it is still a relevant document centuries later. He is charismatic, driven, creative, and exciting. His story is not just a history lesson, it is a compelling memoir that lends much-needed nuance to one of the most easily flattened periods of american history. I'll end with one last quote from Northup that shows his excoriating wit as an author and deep-seated rage as a man:
Never did the sun move so slowly through the heavens – never did it shower down such fervent and fiery rays, as it did that day. At least, so it appeared to me. What my meditations were – the innumerable thoughts that thronged through my distracted brain – I will not attempt to give expression to. Suffice it to say, during the whole long day I came not to the conclusion, even once, that the southern slave, fed, clothed, whipped and protected by his master, is happier than the free colored citizen of the North. To that conclusion I have never since arrived.
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Slave narratives, as a genre, gripped Northern readers in the mid-1800s. Frederick Douglass's famed narrative is still the most famous — deservedly so — but Northup's tale is equally well-written and even more dramatic. (Northup had help with the writing, but still.)
In 1841, Solomon was living a relatively good life as a free black man in New York state. He was working partly as a musician, and was offered a traveling gig from a couple of white dudes. He readily accepted, and the short version of the story is that he was drugged and sold into slavery. Just like that. Of course he tried to plead his innocence, but it was an impossible case to make once you were in the hands of slaveholders. To rub salt into the already horrendous wound, he was in Washington, D.C., a town that was supposedly the bastion of freedom:
"The voices of patriotic representatives boasting of freedom and equality, and the rattling of the poor slave's chains, almost commingled. A slave pen within the very shadow of the Capitol!"
From there he ended up in the bayous of Louisiana, and labored for 12 years as a slave. He was not on a large plantation, but rather a smaller farm with a handful of undeserving prisoners. The real strength of the narrative is in its incredible portrayal of the daily life of a slave: what they ate (not much), how they slept (very little), the process of picking cotton (backbreaking) . . . and of course the daily threat and reality of whippings. At one heartbreaking point, Northup is even forced by his master to brandish the whip himself.
I've not even touched on the incredible story of his rescue and release, which was put into motion by the fortuitous meeting of an abolitionist carpenter who worked on Solomon's behalf at great personal risk.
To sum up, 12 Years a Slave is a great, if at times heartbreaking story. But you know that there's a happy ending! So it's a little better, I guess. Also, it's short and easy-reading. You have no excuse, so get to it.
In 1841, Solomon was living a relatively good life as a free black man in New York state. He was working partly as a musician, and was offered a traveling gig from a couple of white dudes. He readily accepted, and the short version of the story is that he was drugged and sold into slavery. Just like that. Of course he tried to plead his innocence, but it was an impossible case to make once you were in the hands of slaveholders. To rub salt into the already horrendous wound, he was in Washington, D.C., a town that was supposedly the bastion of freedom:
"The voices of patriotic representatives boasting of freedom and equality, and the rattling of the poor slave's chains, almost commingled. A slave pen within the very shadow of the Capitol!"
From there he ended up in the bayous of Louisiana, and labored for 12 years as a slave. He was not on a large plantation, but rather a smaller farm with a handful of undeserving prisoners. The real strength of the narrative is in its incredible portrayal of the daily life of a slave: what they ate (not much), how they slept (very little), the process of picking cotton (backbreaking) . . . and of course the daily threat and reality of whippings. At one heartbreaking point, Northup is even forced by his master to brandish the whip himself.
I've not even touched on the incredible story of his rescue and release, which was put into motion by the fortuitous meeting of an abolitionist carpenter who worked on Solomon's behalf at great personal risk.
To sum up, 12 Years a Slave is a great, if at times heartbreaking story. But you know that there's a happy ending! So it's a little better, I guess. Also, it's short and easy-reading. You have no excuse, so get to it.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Not an ebook, maybe I should change editions.
Okay, changed editions. This was yet another piece added to the puzzle created by my Slavery class this semester. We were warned to not feel more sympathetic towards this narrator than say, to Douglass and Jacobs, just because he had been free and was then enslaved. It is indeed a more relatable story, presenting us with our own fear of having our freedom suddenly snatched from us. Anyway, I don't really have much time to write a review but I can understand why this book had the impact that it did. What I can't understand as much as why it vanished for so many years to finally be rediscovered by a twelve year-old...
Okay, changed editions. This was yet another piece added to the puzzle created by my Slavery class this semester. We were warned to not feel more sympathetic towards this narrator than say, to Douglass and Jacobs, just because he had been free and was then enslaved. It is indeed a more relatable story, presenting us with our own fear of having our freedom suddenly snatched from us. Anyway, I don't really have much time to write a review but I can understand why this book had the impact that it did. What I can't understand as much as why it vanished for so many years to finally be rediscovered by a twelve year-old...
A very interesting read, which while not quite as tight and well-paced as a fictionalized account might be, certainly has a strong enough narrative thread to keep the reader engaged. I also enjoyed the unique viewpoint, of a man not just recounting the injustices and hardships he's suffered, but a man endeavoring to explain the horrors of slavery to an audience who may have never witnessed it firsthand. Solomon uses his position as a freeman and his time as a slave to highlight the fact that there was no real difference between he and the southern slaves than the circumstances of their birth, something that I think perhaps he hadn't even realized or at least hadn't thought about until he became one.
I also found the ending quite poignant, in that Mr Northup treats Solomon as an equal, and all the white government officials in both the North and the South seem eager to help Solomon's case, but in the end systematic racism prevails and Solomon's kidnappers never atone for what they did. Unlike a lot of fictionalized novels where the north is the promised land, Solomon acknowledges its shortcomings. He's free, but racism is still a thing.
I also found the ending quite poignant, in that Mr Northup treats Solomon as an equal, and all the white government officials in both the North and the South seem eager to help Solomon's case, but in the end systematic racism prevails and Solomon's kidnappers never atone for what they did. Unlike a lot of fictionalized novels where the north is the promised land, Solomon acknowledges its shortcomings. He's free, but racism is still a thing.
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced