On the plantations of the antebellum south, the labor force of enslaved African Americans faced a life of physical violence and mental torture. The slave life of Solomon Northup, as depicted in the film 12 Years a Slave, exposes the variety and intensity of the abuses slaves dealt with at the hands of their masters. Solomon, who was born a free man is illegally sold as a runaway slave; he is stripped of his name, stolen from his family, beaten and whipped then sent to the south for auction. Solomon attempts to deal with the complete loss of his freedom the best he can; by surviving with the hope that one day he can regain it.
Solomon faced two types of slavery while he was held, each with a differing toll on him, both bodily and mentally. While …show more content…
Poetry, quilts, drawings, pottery allowed slaves to communicate and help each other, express themselves on a personal level and express their own religious beliefs (not their masters’). For example, a slave potter named wrote poetry on his craftwork to subtly direct fugitive slaves by referencing constellations that white masters would not have caught; one poem is ‘The sun, moon and stars / in the west are plenty of bears’ that “may be a carefully veiled reference to the constellation of stars known as Ursa Major…and known among African American slaves as ‘the drinking gourd,’ [that] points to the North Star, which enslaved fugitives often used to navigate their way to freedom.” He used his poetry to express his own feelings that were shared by all slaves who lost loved ones to the market, ‘I wonder where all my relations / Friendship to all – and every nation is.’ One of the few worries Solomon did not have; his family was still together (sans himself) in New York and free; he would not be separated from them twice and his children would not be sold. Instead, he carved their names into his instrument to keep them close and keep his hope
Solomon faced two types of slavery while he was held, each with a differing toll on him, both bodily and mentally. While …show more content…
Poetry, quilts, drawings, pottery allowed slaves to communicate and help each other, express themselves on a personal level and express their own religious beliefs (not their masters’). For example, a slave potter named wrote poetry on his craftwork to subtly direct fugitive slaves by referencing constellations that white masters would not have caught; one poem is ‘The sun, moon and stars / in the west are plenty of bears’ that “may be a carefully veiled reference to the constellation of stars known as Ursa Major…and known among African American slaves as ‘the drinking gourd,’ [that] points to the North Star, which enslaved fugitives often used to navigate their way to freedom.” He used his poetry to express his own feelings that were shared by all slaves who lost loved ones to the market, ‘I wonder where all my relations / Friendship to all – and every nation is.’ One of the few worries Solomon did not have; his family was still together (sans himself) in New York and free; he would not be separated from them twice and his children would not be sold. Instead, he carved their names into his instrument to keep them close and keep his hope