In the slavery times of the United States of America, being born free and not having to grow up enslaved, is a wish many dreamed of, but not many were blessed with. Solomon Northup, up until March of 1841, was a free man. Living in Saratoga Springs with his family of 4, making a living off his farm and music, Northup was illegally sold into slavery, thus marking the start of his 12 years as a slave. The way slavery was demonstrated in the book "12 Years a Slave" by Solomon Northup, proved the injustice and disrespect that black slaves endured for 250 years. Through reading this book, I came to understand more in-depth the pain and suffering that, not only slaves, but the people who knew certain individual slaves had to go through. In this paper
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You get offered a seemingly harmless job to earn some money for your family, but instead get drugged and kidnapped, given a new name, and illegally sold into slavery. You would do just about anything to regain your freedom, right? To go back to your family whom you love and adore? This was the story of Solomon Northup. Unfortunately, the chances of becoming free yet again are next to none. Once sold into slavery, there is just about no chance of going back, unless you get illicit help from someone. Since the importation of African slaves was outlawed in the Slave Act of 1807, Southerners, or any person in the business of selling slaves, went to extreme measures to keep the business running. This included kidnapping free men from the North, and transporting them to the South, where they get sold. The cruelty and anguish of this is not just the fact that you 're taking a free man from his home and sentencing him to life in slavery, but the fact that he has absolutely no power to defend his freedom, because he 's "of lesser value" compared to the white man. Furthermore, being a previously free black man being introduced first-hand to slavery, is quite the awakening. Many were held in slave pens, like Northup, and were "taught" the rules of slavery through brutality. They were taught to never speak of their freedom, and to always obey the white man. Horrific as it is, it 's how things were back then, and there really wasn 't much you could do about it at the
You get offered a seemingly harmless job to earn some money for your family, but instead get drugged and kidnapped, given a new name, and illegally sold into slavery. You would do just about anything to regain your freedom, right? To go back to your family whom you love and adore? This was the story of Solomon Northup. Unfortunately, the chances of becoming free yet again are next to none. Once sold into slavery, there is just about no chance of going back, unless you get illicit help from someone. Since the importation of African slaves was outlawed in the Slave Act of 1807, Southerners, or any person in the business of selling slaves, went to extreme measures to keep the business running. This included kidnapping free men from the North, and transporting them to the South, where they get sold. The cruelty and anguish of this is not just the fact that you 're taking a free man from his home and sentencing him to life in slavery, but the fact that he has absolutely no power to defend his freedom, because he 's "of lesser value" compared to the white man. Furthermore, being a previously free black man being introduced first-hand to slavery, is quite the awakening. Many were held in slave pens, like Northup, and were "taught" the rules of slavery through brutality. They were taught to never speak of their freedom, and to always obey the white man. Horrific as it is, it 's how things were back then, and there really wasn 't much you could do about it at the