“Alas! They have never drank, as I have, from the bitter cup of slavery.” p.72
Stars: 5/5
Solomon Northup, born a free man, provides a rich account of his life as a slave. In 1841, led on by a ruse, Northup was kidnapped in Washington DC and ultimately sold in Louisiana as a slave. His retelling of his years of toil and abuse is a harrowing tale that, at times, provides a vivid account of the harshness of slavery and all the extensions of this peculiar institution.
Solomon captures the sentiment of one young Southern slavemaster:
“He looked upon the black man simply as an animal, differing in no respect from any other animal, save in the gift of speech and the possession of somewhat higher instincts, and, therefore, the more valuable. To work like his father’s mules - to be whipped and kicked and scourged through life - to address the white man with hat in hand, and eyes bent servilely on the earth, in his mind was that natural and proper destiny of the slave.” p. 164
In the end, we learn how, after 12 years of bondage, Solomon regains his freedom and the risks he had to take in order to have a chance at liberty.
A Portrait of Solomon Northup (c) 2013
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