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A review by deedeemegadoodoo
12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup
5.0
This book wasn't as emotional as I thought it was going to be just because I wrongly went into it with my mental and emotional armor on, appropriate for Toni Morrison's Beloved, The Help, The Secret Life of the Bees, current news of policemen and wannabe policemen unjustifiably harming black people who are just trying to live their lives.
This book is not supposed to be one of those projects that "make good television." The content of chattel slavery, human bondage, the immorality of whites for every historical injustice they've oppressed black people with, that's emotional enough. But this book is a factual account of a man who without his consent, was taken downwards.
From a free man for 33 years sold into slavery.
From the North to the South in the bayous of Louisiana.
He doesn't need to make you emotional. He needs to make you feel the injustices, the sheer incredulity of what happened to him. He needs you to see his personal case of white on black treatment and the oppressive system of slavery and how it still grips America today.
Do not judge this book on plot, style, characters- none of that. It's a personal account, it's historical, and it should only be regarded with respect.
Solomon Northrup became a free man again in 1953 and he wasn't allowed to face his kidnappers in court because black people had no rights in the court of law. That was in 1953. Literally yesterday in the short life of America. Us today, we need to do our best to atone for this dark, cruel history and make sure it and all systems similar (like mass incarceration and forcing prisoners into unpaid labor working on furniture, textiles, etc) are eradicated, and that this history and the stories, like Solomon Northrup's, never go forgotten. We need to find humanity in one another and push out the Epps's of the world. We need to be intolerant of people who see others as objects or animals.
I'll say it forever, but racism is still prevalent in America and there is no racism against white people. When a country is racist against black people today, that affects their rights to vote, their chances to get loans, to own a house, to start businesses, to leave generational poverty and oppression. It affects their lives, their safety when driving, when carrying a sandwich, when sleeping in their home. It affects if they get into jobs and schools. It affects how much news coverage (or lack thereof) they get when they are kidnapped.
When whites receive "racism" their egos are hurt, sure. But nothing happens to their livelihood. They can still get loans, get proper treatment in hospitals, be taken seriously when they say they're in pain. Nothing happens beyond individual hurt feelings.
So for changing all of this, for Solomon Northrup, we've still got a lot to work on.
This book is not supposed to be one of those projects that "make good television." The content of chattel slavery, human bondage, the immorality of whites for every historical injustice they've oppressed black people with, that's emotional enough. But this book is a factual account of a man who without his consent, was taken downwards.
From a free man for 33 years sold into slavery.
From the North to the South in the bayous of Louisiana.
He doesn't need to make you emotional. He needs to make you feel the injustices, the sheer incredulity of what happened to him. He needs you to see his personal case of white on black treatment and the oppressive system of slavery and how it still grips America today.
Do not judge this book on plot, style, characters- none of that. It's a personal account, it's historical, and it should only be regarded with respect.
Solomon Northrup became a free man again in 1953 and he wasn't allowed to face his kidnappers in court because black people had no rights in the court of law. That was in 1953. Literally yesterday in the short life of America. Us today, we need to do our best to atone for this dark, cruel history and make sure it and all systems similar (like mass incarceration and forcing prisoners into unpaid labor working on furniture, textiles, etc) are eradicated, and that this history and the stories, like Solomon Northrup's, never go forgotten. We need to find humanity in one another and push out the Epps's of the world. We need to be intolerant of people who see others as objects or animals.
I'll say it forever, but racism is still prevalent in America and there is no racism against white people. When a country is racist against black people today, that affects their rights to vote, their chances to get loans, to own a house, to start businesses, to leave generational poverty and oppression. It affects their lives, their safety when driving, when carrying a sandwich, when sleeping in their home. It affects if they get into jobs and schools. It affects how much news coverage (or lack thereof) they get when they are kidnapped.
When whites receive "racism" their egos are hurt, sure. But nothing happens to their livelihood. They can still get loans, get proper treatment in hospitals, be taken seriously when they say they're in pain. Nothing happens beyond individual hurt feelings.
So for changing all of this, for Solomon Northrup, we've still got a lot to work on.