Title: Twelve
Years a Slave
Authors: Solomon
Northup & Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Publisher: Penguin
Books
Publication Date: September
4, 2013
Genres: Non-fiction,
Biography, History
Reviewed by: Angie
Edwards
Source: Purchased
My rating: 5/5
SUMMARY
First published in 1853, Twelve Years a Slave is the narrative of Solomon Northup’s experience
as a free man sold into slavery. Northup’s memoir reveals unimaginable details
about the slave markets, the horrors of life on a plantation, and the dreadful day-to-day
treatment of the slaves from the perspective of a man who lived more than
thirty years as a free man before being forcibly enslaved.
REVIEW
I
purchased this book on a whim, following the Oscars, without knowing anything
about the book or the movie except that the movie version was awarded the
Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama. Because I am fascinated by
the history of slavery, and because it was made into a much talked about movie in
which one of my favorite actors, Brad Pitt, has a role, I took a chance on Twelve Years a Slave, and have not
regretted it once. In many ways it’s not an easy book to read and took me
several weeks to finish, but once I got used to the narrative, it was nearly
impossible to put down.
What would become of me? Who would befriend
me? Wither should I fly? Oh, God! Thou who gavest me life, and implanted in my
bosom the love of life who filled it with emotions such as other men, thy
creatures, have, do not forsake me. Have pity on the poor slave - let me not
perish. If thou cost not protect me, I am lost - lost! Such supplications,
silently and unuttered, ascended from my inmost heart to Heaven.
As you
can tell from the quoted text, Twelve
Years a Slave isn’t a book you read in a rush. This type of narrative is
the exact reason why I don’t read works by Shakespeare and other such classics
of this kind. English is my second language, and this type of narrative is
foreign to me and tends to deter me from reading such books. Yet, this novel,
once I got used to the narrative, appealed to my humanity and I felt the
suffering of Northup and others of his kind as clearly as though it was being
done to me personally.
The
second thing that made this book really hard for me to read was the injustices
done to the slaves. The mere fact that they were treated and considered not as
human beings, but as lowly, yet slightly more intelligent than wild animals,
made me cry buckets of tears. I was appalled and alarmed at the horrific
treatment, and the unjust and severe punishments bestowed upon these people.
They were ridiculed, beaten to an inch of their lives, mistreated, underfed,
tortured, oppressed, and weren’t even granted the most basic of possessions
such as eating utensils. The last book I read about slavery in the American
south was Sue Monk Kidd’s, The Invention
of Wings, and as horrified as I was by her in-depth portrayal of slavery,
the characters of that novel lived a fairly easy life compared to the one
described by Solomon Northup.
To
compound my feelings of horror at the inhumane treatment endured by slaves at
the hands of their malicious owners, was the realization that all of what Northup
was describing really happened. To him, and thousands of others, this was real
life. It made it so much worse. They lived a life I can’t imagine, but Northup,
with understanding, gentle honestly, and fairness towards his enslavers, takes
the reader into a world which, luckily for the reader, can be escaped by
closing the book when the harsh reality of it all becomes too much, whilst, for
the unfortunate slaves, there was no escaping their merciless and painful
journey through life.
As a
final thought, Twelve Years a Slave
made me appreciate the freedom I have. Many times I’ve considered the fact that
we are all slaves in one form or another. We aren’t one-hundred-percent free to
do exactly as we please. We all have to conform to rules, regulations, or laws
of some sort. Yet nothing, in my opinion, takes away our freedom of choice in
the manner slavery did. Northup’s story touched me deeply, and my heart ached
for every slave in this novel, and every slave that had to endure brutality in
any form. This novel contains many scenes of heartbreaking cruelty, but it also
makes it clear that not all slave owners were malicious and unjust, and that
there were thousands of slaves who lived a good life with generous and kind
owners. Still, this is not a book I’ll recommend to just anyone, but it’s
definitely worth the time for those brave, compassionate, and open-minded enough
to bear witness to the plight of the ill-treated masses on whose blood and sorrows
the foundation of a prospering country was built.
PURCHASE LINKS
ABOUT the AUTHORS
DOLEN PERKINS-VALDEZ, PhD, is the author
of the New York Times bestselling novel, Wench. In 2011, she was a finalist for
two NAACP Image Awards and the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award for fiction. She was
also awarded the First Novelist Award by the Black Caucus of the American
Library Association. Dr. Perkins-Valdez teaches in the Stonecoast (Maine) MFA
program and lives in Washington, DC, with her family.
SOLOMON NORTHUP (1808c. 1864-75) was
a free-born African American from New York State who was kidnapped into slavery
in 1841. After his escape, he became an abolitionist and published his memoir,
Twelve Years a Slave, (1853). He spoke on behalf of the abolitionist movement
and helped fugitive slaves on the Underground Railroad.
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