The Flivver King

Nicole Moore

Dr. Skidmore

HIST 2300

11 November 2014

Solomon Northup’s Fight for Freedom

Slavery has been a widely controversial topic in America since it first hit the nation in 1619. Even after slavery was abolished by the thirteenth amendment in 1865, racism and hatred towards African Americans lingered. In Solomon Northup’s autobiography, Twelve Years a Slave, and in Steve McQueen’s screenplay off the popular memoir, the conditions and horrors of slavery in the south before the Civil War take center stage. Despite the years of torment, agonizing labor, and inequality Solomon Northup faced, his experiences as a slave impacted America in a positive way.

Both the movie and the book present an accurate representation of the common slave in the pre-Civil War south. Being a free African American man kidnapped and made a slave, Northup’s situation is especially unique. Through the merciless whippings, the constant traveling, and the brutal labor, Northup’s life as a slave depicts what the average enslaved African American endured in the nineteenth century. Although the movie fails to include all parts of Northup’s journey to his final destination of Edwin Epps’ plantation, it excels in providing key parts of Northup’s struggle. In his memoir, he mentions the excessive harshness of penalties awarded to those who did not follow the rules. Northup states, “The number of lashes is graduated according to the nature of the case. Twenty-five are deemed a mere brush, inflicted, for instance, when a dry leaf or piece of boll is found in the cotton, or when a branch is broken in the field” (Northup 180). Not only are the slaves whipped for insignificant acts, they are also whipped for unsuccessfully picking a sufficient amount of cotton. A typical slave embarked on a nine to twelve hour day in the cotton field with the hot sun beating down their backs and hardly any water to stay properly hydrated. This difficult labor and physical hardship only made Northup stronger...