Analysis At first glance, Chapter III seems to set forth what will become the recurring theme of “man’s inhumanity to man,” perpetrated with vigor through the corruption of the slave trade. Northup himself refers to this in his dealings with Burch, writing, “Alas! I had not then learned the measure […]
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Analysis The first casualty of the slave trade, according to this portion of Solomon Northup’s narrative, is human integrity. Writing more than a decade after his kidnapping, Northup still has difficulty believing that Brown and Hamilton could be so evil as to feign friendship and then use it as a […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 2Summary and Analysis Chapter 1
Analysis The slave narrative in the 1800s was always more than just an autobiography. It served as a political lobbying tool intended to sway public opinion against the practice of slavery and toward the abolitionist agenda. In order to do that, it was absolutely necessary for any slave narrative to […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 1Summary and Analysis Editor’s Preface
Analysis David Wilson’s involvement and endorsement of Solomon Northup’s story is brief, but it was crucial to getting 12 Years a Slave accepted publicly during the time when it was published. Northup’s testimony was damning evidence against the entire system of slavery in practice at that time in the southern […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Editor’s PrefaceCharacter List
Henry B. Northup A white man, related to the family that owned Solomon’s father as a slave, and from the family from which Solomon took his last name. A lawyer, he journeyed south to rescue Solomon from captivity. Merrill Brown One of two white con men who, with Abram Hamilton, […]
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12 Years a Slave covers five primary periods in Solomon Northup’s life: 1. Solomon Northup: Free Man In Chapters I and II, Northup tells of his life as a free black man living in upstate New York. Born in July 1808, he was the son of an emancipated slave. He […]
Read more Book SummaryTwelve Years a Slave At a Glance
Solomon Northup’s 12 Years a Slave recounts the author’s life story as a free black man from the North who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the pre-Civil War South. The son of an emancipated slave, Northup was born free. He lived, worked, and married in upstate New York, […]
Read more Twelve Years a Slave At a Glance