Chapter One:
In chapter one of 12 Years a Slave Solomon Northup gives a brief history of his family and his background. The small portion of his life that he shares in the first chapter is simple. He lived a simple life, a normal route for any young man to live. He got married, he started a family and worked as much as possible to support his family. Just by this first chapter you can tell Northup has a great work ethic, he picked this up from his father. In the last paragraph he says "-- nothing but the common hoped, and loves and labors of an obscured colored man, making his humbles progress in the world." This sentence perfect describes his life up till the point of being kidnapped.
Near the end of the chapter Northup explains how he …show more content…
They were kind and caring, acting as if they were the best of friends. They even made sure he had the correct freedom papers! They crossed all their t 's and dotted all of their i 's when they thought this plan through. They knew exactly what to say to get an innocent bystander to agree to leave the state with them. Even writing this book, Northup tried to convince himself that Brown and Hamilton weren 't all bad, that somehow they didn 't have anything to do with his abduction. Chapter Three:
Northup summed this chapter up perfectly when he said: "Alas! I had not then learned the measure of 'mans inhumanity to man, ' nor to what limitless extent of wickedness he will go for the love of gain." Birch is the perfect example of selfishness. He would have rather taken away the lives of free men and women just so he could have money and power.
Eliza and Emily were promised freedom, but greed and jealousy got in the way. Mrs. Brooke seemed to be jealous of how her father, Barry treated Eliza and Emily. Once her father died, she sold them as fast as she could. She lured them into a false sense of hope by telling them she was taking them to get their freedom …show more content…
Burch was the one in handcuffs, and Northup was the freeman. "For the present he disappears from the scenes recorded in this narrative, but he will appear again before its close, not in the character of a man-whipping tyrant, but as an arrested, cringing criminal in a court of law, that failed to do him justice." No amount of jail time could every amount to what Northup and other slaves went through, but there is a sense of justice in this. Chapter Five:
While on the boat to Virginia, Orleans, Northup met another former freeman by the name of Arthur. They bonded just as quickly as he did with Robert. The three of them got along well, and soon devised a plan to escape. They had thought through everything to the very last detail. We will never know if this plan could have worked, because Robert suddenly got violently ill, and died a few days later.
When Orleans finally landed in Virginia, they called name after name, Northup 's name wasn 't ever called. He found out that Burch had written his name down as Platt. The slave traders would take away the names of their slaves to de-humanize them. They would strip them of their lives from before. They took away who they were, and tried to show them who they belonged
In chapter one of 12 Years a Slave Solomon Northup gives a brief history of his family and his background. The small portion of his life that he shares in the first chapter is simple. He lived a simple life, a normal route for any young man to live. He got married, he started a family and worked as much as possible to support his family. Just by this first chapter you can tell Northup has a great work ethic, he picked this up from his father. In the last paragraph he says "-- nothing but the common hoped, and loves and labors of an obscured colored man, making his humbles progress in the world." This sentence perfect describes his life up till the point of being kidnapped.
Near the end of the chapter Northup explains how he …show more content…
They were kind and caring, acting as if they were the best of friends. They even made sure he had the correct freedom papers! They crossed all their t 's and dotted all of their i 's when they thought this plan through. They knew exactly what to say to get an innocent bystander to agree to leave the state with them. Even writing this book, Northup tried to convince himself that Brown and Hamilton weren 't all bad, that somehow they didn 't have anything to do with his abduction. Chapter Three:
Northup summed this chapter up perfectly when he said: "Alas! I had not then learned the measure of 'mans inhumanity to man, ' nor to what limitless extent of wickedness he will go for the love of gain." Birch is the perfect example of selfishness. He would have rather taken away the lives of free men and women just so he could have money and power.
Eliza and Emily were promised freedom, but greed and jealousy got in the way. Mrs. Brooke seemed to be jealous of how her father, Barry treated Eliza and Emily. Once her father died, she sold them as fast as she could. She lured them into a false sense of hope by telling them she was taking them to get their freedom …show more content…
Burch was the one in handcuffs, and Northup was the freeman. "For the present he disappears from the scenes recorded in this narrative, but he will appear again before its close, not in the character of a man-whipping tyrant, but as an arrested, cringing criminal in a court of law, that failed to do him justice." No amount of jail time could every amount to what Northup and other slaves went through, but there is a sense of justice in this. Chapter Five:
While on the boat to Virginia, Orleans, Northup met another former freeman by the name of Arthur. They bonded just as quickly as he did with Robert. The three of them got along well, and soon devised a plan to escape. They had thought through everything to the very last detail. We will never know if this plan could have worked, because Robert suddenly got violently ill, and died a few days later.
When Orleans finally landed in Virginia, they called name after name, Northup 's name wasn 't ever called. He found out that Burch had written his name down as Platt. The slave traders would take away the names of their slaves to de-humanize them. They would strip them of their lives from before. They took away who they were, and tried to show them who they belonged