Northup's Cruelty

On page 70 of Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave, the beginning paragraph opens with “He, however, lost nothing by his kindness,” and ends on the following page with “and finally reached our destination in a shorter period of time than I had anticipated.” On these two pages, Northup, at this time known as Platt, details the urge to seek Ford’s kindness and approval by constructing and successfully executing a design to better business on Ford’s plantation by creating rafts and maneuvering them through the swampy terrain. It is, at this point in the novel, we can witness the programmed mind of the slave to obey his or her master, which, as Northup shows, can be instilled through a variety of ways. William Ford, unlike other slave traders and white men Northup has encountered thus far, is exceptionally ‘liberal’ minded, exhibited by his neutral decision to allow Northup to experiment and show off his creativity and independence. It goes without saying that this is fairly unheard of for white, southern plantation owners; normally, as we see later on in the novel, are bent on using their sheer sense of cruelty to instill obedience and never autonomy in their slaves. …show more content…
Albeit a kind Christian— or rather one of the kinder ones in this novel— it should be remembered that Ford is a slave owner and still participates in the inhumane trafficking and abuse of slaves. Harking back to the beginning sentence, “He, however, lost nothing by his kindness,” may be true from Northup’s point of view, and it is true that his generosity and ‘goodwill’ might stir a sense of childlike desire to please in his slaves, we can be rest assured that his plantation still employs abusive and cruel men who aren’t divorced from the idea of lashing a slave with a