How Is Solomon Portrayed In 12 Years A Slave

In the novel “12 years a slave” Solomon Northup gave his insight on a dramatic time in his life. Born a free man, he had been held hostage and sold into slavery at the age of thirty-three. Being born in Minerva, New York where slavery was not as common, he had been unaware of the sovereignty of slavery down south. Upon traveling to Washington, Solomon’s goal was to seek income for his family, but instead it soon back fired. Solomon was very naive when it came to the white man because he was not aware of their true intentions on contacting him. The reader strongly believed that there were signs, such as the way the white men were speaking, and the promises they made to Northup. for him to become suspicious of trusting the white men too soon, but then again it is understandable onto why he would fall into their traps because money was involved. …show more content…
He also showed how this was a regular person, like us, who got trapped into an unfortunate situation. Northup also expands on how he was treated and instead of being called by his biological name he was referred to as “Platt” or “nigger” a derogatory term for a white man to be using for an African American in the 1800’s.
Solomon’s purpose for writing this book was to inform the readers of the harsh and cruel behavior the slave owners put him and the others through. As stated in the book “blow after blow was inflicted upon my naked body”. Solomon explains how if you disobeyed the master you were penalized and whipped multiple times. Such as when Patsey went to Shaw’s house to get a bar of soap to be able to wash herself after days and days of going without bathing and when caught she was punished with the