What Is Solomon Northrup's Memories Of A Slave Auction

In the excerpt “Memories of a Slave Auction” written by Solomon Northrup, the story tells of a free black male living in the years that slavery occurred. Although Solomon was a free black male, he was stolen and kidnapped into slavery. Solomon writes a story about his first-hand account in the eyes of a black male in bondage. This first-hand account helps to better understand the horrors of being in what is known as the slave auctions, a grueling time where whites would “examine” the slaves and bid with money if they feel that the slave will be useful on their plantation. In the South, the slave auctions were current on a daily-basis.
First, Northrup describes how the slave auctions were at the time. At the beginning of the excerpt, Northrup explains, “[Freeman] ordered us to appear smart and lively, sometimes threatening us. During the day, he exercised us in the art of ‘looking smart’ and of moving in our places in exact precision” (Northrup). This shows how the slaves were treated “behind the scenes” because the Auctioneers were a group of people that sold off the slaves …show more content…
Without this knowledge, we would not know how the slave system became, and also, why early Americans had slaves. In April 9, 1865, the war had ended and the slaves were supposed to be set free; however, slave owners did not let the slaves leave the plantations. There a great migration that took place, and that meant the blacks were free of slavery and most of the blacks moved up North, to the New England states. With this, the blacks were also free of working the minimum of sixteen hours a day. Overall, this article states that the slave auctions were a huge factor in understanding the life of a slave because without this, there would be no primary source, and without primary source, we in this generation would not know a bit about this horrible piece in our American