You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.23 AVERAGE
4.23 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
A heartbreaking narrative of the life of a man named Solomon Northup, kidnapped and sold into slavery from New York to New Orleans. It tells the hardships men and women faced before the American civil war and sadly after it as well, and the brutality that society deemed acceptable upon humanity. A narrative that should be explored by all.
Reasons I Recommend:
1) slavery is an injustice and blight in human history that took place in society on every continent since the beginning and to read the hardship one man endured about his time as a slave, barely 160 years ago so recent in the grand scheme of things, is hard to imagine
2) How he coped; the people he met; the lanks those he knew went to find him and rescue him is an amazing tale.
And 3) Northup himself says it best: "the existence of Slavery in its most cruel form among them has a tendency to brutalize the humane and finer feelings of their nature ... 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 early childhood, by all that he sees and hears ... he will not be apt to change his opinions in maturer years."
#bookworm #bibliophile #booktoread #historical #biography #narrative #briereads #recommendedbybrie #americanhistory #slavery #solomonnorthup #12yearsaslave #goodreads
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Reasons I Recommend:
1) slavery is an injustice and blight in human history that took place in society on every continent since the beginning and to read the hardship one man endured about his time as a slave, barely 160 years ago so recent in the grand scheme of things, is hard to imagine
2) How he coped; the people he met; the lanks those he knew went to find him and rescue him is an amazing tale.
And 3) Northup himself says it best: "the existence of Slavery in its most cruel form among them has a tendency to brutalize the humane and finer feelings of their nature ... 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 early childhood, by all that he sees and hears ... he will not be apt to change his opinions in maturer years."
#bookworm #bibliophile #booktoread #historical #biography #narrative #briereads #recommendedbybrie #americanhistory #slavery #solomonnorthup #12yearsaslave #goodreads
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
From The Life of William Grimes to the slave narratives of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs, slavery in fiction and reality is not something thats easily digestible to the modern man, it makes him flinch with disgust and the details churns his stomach in ways detestable. 12 Years a slave is the autobiography of a freeman, who was kidnapped and sold into slavery and redeemed 12 years later. Solomon Northrup lived in a time of great turmoil (which eventually culminated in the American Civil War) when the american consciousness was torn between freedom and slavery, with the southern states supporting strongly the institution of slavery and the northern states strongly condemning the devilish practice. What happened of it is a matter of history and of little importance to the book.
Solomon Northup was born to a freeman and spent his childhood working in his fathers farm, later he went on to move to Minerva after his marriage. The rest of the particulars of his life again is academic in nature now. He was a carpenter by profession, an educated, trained and unsuspecting man, who was lured by two strangers with the promise of a more rewarding job and then sold into slavery in the slave pens of New Orleans. The one thing that differentiated this man from the rest of the slaves around him was the fact that he knew what freedom meant, a fact that he had to conceal cleverly due to the fear of punishment and torture.
Solomon's narrative of his on experience as a slave is mostly objective but it brims with a feeling of distance towards the whole of life. His need or desire to be as much away from the most torturous 12 years of his life is easily reflected in his writing. Its neither flowery nor flaunting oratory of any nature, just an observation of what he had to endure and how he did so. His account of life he saw happen around hims and what it meant to him. The most wonderful thing about Solomon's narrative is that he didn't demonize the villains in his story, they were definitely villains but he reserved crude judgements to a very appreciable degree.
The book '12 years a slave' by Solomon Northup is a good old slave narrative that objectively illustrates the life of a slave and his livelihood through the eyes of a freeman that he was. The book offers a clear perspective into the working of the institution of slavery and explains why the masters behaved as they did and for what end. Solomon explains that not all his masters were cruel and each had his own on way getting what they wanted form his slaves, from treated them a little as men and others terrified them. some gave them little comforts and rewards others gave them nothing and kept them that way.
- See more at: http://www.pagesofflife.blogspot.in/#sthash.RTFg5Toq.dpuf
Solomon Northup was born to a freeman and spent his childhood working in his fathers farm, later he went on to move to Minerva after his marriage. The rest of the particulars of his life again is academic in nature now. He was a carpenter by profession, an educated, trained and unsuspecting man, who was lured by two strangers with the promise of a more rewarding job and then sold into slavery in the slave pens of New Orleans. The one thing that differentiated this man from the rest of the slaves around him was the fact that he knew what freedom meant, a fact that he had to conceal cleverly due to the fear of punishment and torture.
Solomon's narrative of his on experience as a slave is mostly objective but it brims with a feeling of distance towards the whole of life. His need or desire to be as much away from the most torturous 12 years of his life is easily reflected in his writing. Its neither flowery nor flaunting oratory of any nature, just an observation of what he had to endure and how he did so. His account of life he saw happen around hims and what it meant to him. The most wonderful thing about Solomon's narrative is that he didn't demonize the villains in his story, they were definitely villains but he reserved crude judgements to a very appreciable degree.
The book '12 years a slave' by Solomon Northup is a good old slave narrative that objectively illustrates the life of a slave and his livelihood through the eyes of a freeman that he was. The book offers a clear perspective into the working of the institution of slavery and explains why the masters behaved as they did and for what end. Solomon explains that not all his masters were cruel and each had his own on way getting what they wanted form his slaves, from treated them a little as men and others terrified them. some gave them little comforts and rewards others gave them nothing and kept them that way.
- See more at: http://www.pagesofflife.blogspot.in/#sthash.RTFg5Toq.dpuf
I didn’t know quite what to expect from this book. I have still not seen the film but I expect that to change soon enough now. I went in blind armed only with the knowledge that the book is about a free man tricked into slavery who managed to eventually alert the authorities and get free. Beyond that, nothing.
Yes, this is the story of a free black man from New York sold into slavery against his will. New York, a state that abolished slavery in the early to mid-19th century, had not known slavery for at least three decades at the time. When Northup was approached by a couple of gentlemen offering to hire his music skills for a circus in the Deep South, he never suspected there was an ulterior motive – especially when they took him to a government office and paid for papers proving his freed status.
Going to bed with a severe headache one night, he wakes up to find himself in chains in a Washington DC slave market – his money and papers were gone and all evidence of his identity vanished. He proclaims the mistake to the slave trader who calls him a liar and beats him. He soon ends up in Louisiana where he ends up working for several masters in a bayou of the Red River.
This is one of the most shocking books I have ever read, but at the same time, it is one of the most inspirational and educational. Northup’s attention to detail of his entire journey from his capture, working the bayou, the process of cotton picking and of the daily life of the slaves came with a few surprises. That’s the educational bit. The inspiration within the book exists within Northup’s attitude in his writing. He goes to great lengths to point out the kindness he received just as much as the brutality, the heroes of the piece along with the villains of the piece. What I found most humbling is the undertone that “I feel fortunate” and “others had it harder”.
Of course, he was angry about what happened to him, but all through the book, he manages to keep his analysis to a cold evaluation of the facts. This was written after his rescue; there is very little anger except towards the most brutal figures in the narrative. He admits he knows very little about the institution of slavery and isn’t really keen on discussing that aspect:
He is only interested in expressing his own experiences, not to provide a voice for abolitionists – although later in life he did, in fact, become an abolitionist. It’s important to remember that this is a man born free. It’s likely he may never have met a slave in his lifetime until that point. He was born around the time the state no longer knew slavery.
In summary, this is a great book. It’s horrifying and uplifting, it’s a page turner (unusually for a memoir) and it will teach you a few new things about what went on under slavery. It is now making me question just how much this sort of incident happened – free men and women tricked into slavery who never got their freedom back, their families never discovering their fate.
Yes, this is the story of a free black man from New York sold into slavery against his will. New York, a state that abolished slavery in the early to mid-19th century, had not known slavery for at least three decades at the time. When Northup was approached by a couple of gentlemen offering to hire his music skills for a circus in the Deep South, he never suspected there was an ulterior motive – especially when they took him to a government office and paid for papers proving his freed status.
Going to bed with a severe headache one night, he wakes up to find himself in chains in a Washington DC slave market – his money and papers were gone and all evidence of his identity vanished. He proclaims the mistake to the slave trader who calls him a liar and beats him. He soon ends up in Louisiana where he ends up working for several masters in a bayou of the Red River.
This is one of the most shocking books I have ever read, but at the same time, it is one of the most inspirational and educational. Northup’s attention to detail of his entire journey from his capture, working the bayou, the process of cotton picking and of the daily life of the slaves came with a few surprises. That’s the educational bit. The inspiration within the book exists within Northup’s attitude in his writing. He goes to great lengths to point out the kindness he received just as much as the brutality, the heroes of the piece along with the villains of the piece. What I found most humbling is the undertone that “I feel fortunate” and “others had it harder”.
Of course, he was angry about what happened to him, but all through the book, he manages to keep his analysis to a cold evaluation of the facts. This was written after his rescue; there is very little anger except towards the most brutal figures in the narrative. He admits he knows very little about the institution of slavery and isn’t really keen on discussing that aspect:
I have no comments to make upon the subject of Slavery. Those who read this book may form their own opinions of the peculiar institution. What it may be in other States, I do not profess to know; what it is in the region of Red River, is truly and faithfully delineated in these pages.
He is only interested in expressing his own experiences, not to provide a voice for abolitionists – although later in life he did, in fact, become an abolitionist. It’s important to remember that this is a man born free. It’s likely he may never have met a slave in his lifetime until that point. He was born around the time the state no longer knew slavery.
In summary, this is a great book. It’s horrifying and uplifting, it’s a page turner (unusually for a memoir) and it will teach you a few new things about what went on under slavery. It is now making me question just how much this sort of incident happened – free men and women tricked into slavery who never got their freedom back, their families never discovering their fate.
dark
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
12 Years A Slave is the story of a free Black man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery. I shudder to think how often this must’ve have occurred during that time. I was happy to learn that at least this individual was made a free man again and reunited with his family but not before having been subjected to horrors and abuse at the hands of violent men for an incredibly long amount of time. It would seem strange to say I enjoyed this book, but it was an interesting read.
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced