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evavroslin 's review for:
Twelve Years a Slave
by Solomon Northup
I just finished "Twelve Years a Slave" by Solomon Northup and it's a gripping narrative about how Northup, a free man of color from New York, who is educated and talented, especially at playing the violin, is tricked and kidnapped by two men who specialize in kidnapping free people of color and selling them into slavery.
He's taken away from his loving family with no hope of reaching them, and even though he can read and write, slaves aren't permitted to go anywhere near pen and paper. There are a few instances when he comes agonizingly close to regaining his freedom but they're shut down by circumstances out of his control.
Although his first master, Ford, is a kind man (or as kind as a slave owner can be), Northup is sold to Tibeats, a ruthless tyrant who causes him much suffering, who then sells him to an even worse tyrant, the diabolical and heartless Edwin Epps, who shows no remorse or compassion and thinks of his slaves as pieces of property.
Patsy, one of the other slaves, is the regular object of Master and Mistress Epps's tortures on a regular basis and it's very difficult not to be overcome with emotion when reading some of the passages.
Eventually through the help of Bass, a Canadian carpenter, Northup facilitates his freedom and makes the people who abused him pay, and although the reader knows from the outset that he will eventually be free again, it's nevertheless gripping to read about all he had to endure to reach that point.
I wanted to read this book before I watch the film adaptation from Steve McQueen, which I'm sure will be as unflinching and unreserved as the book, to keep true to it, but it's a remarkable story of one man's triumph in the face of so much adversity and injustice and should be required reading. I hope that more people will pick this book up because of the movie, or even to read it after watching it for a comparison, but I think that along with "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and "Underground to Canada" this book deserves to gain the same level of attention and notoriety and it deserves to be read more widely.
He's taken away from his loving family with no hope of reaching them, and even though he can read and write, slaves aren't permitted to go anywhere near pen and paper. There are a few instances when he comes agonizingly close to regaining his freedom but they're shut down by circumstances out of his control.
Although his first master, Ford, is a kind man (or as kind as a slave owner can be), Northup is sold to Tibeats, a ruthless tyrant who causes him much suffering, who then sells him to an even worse tyrant, the diabolical and heartless Edwin Epps, who shows no remorse or compassion and thinks of his slaves as pieces of property.
Patsy, one of the other slaves, is the regular object of Master and Mistress Epps's tortures on a regular basis and it's very difficult not to be overcome with emotion when reading some of the passages.
Eventually through the help of Bass, a Canadian carpenter, Northup facilitates his freedom and makes the people who abused him pay, and although the reader knows from the outset that he will eventually be free again, it's nevertheless gripping to read about all he had to endure to reach that point.
I wanted to read this book before I watch the film adaptation from Steve McQueen, which I'm sure will be as unflinching and unreserved as the book, to keep true to it, but it's a remarkable story of one man's triumph in the face of so much adversity and injustice and should be required reading. I hope that more people will pick this book up because of the movie, or even to read it after watching it for a comparison, but I think that along with "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and "Underground to Canada" this book deserves to gain the same level of attention and notoriety and it deserves to be read more widely.