From the Bookshelf of Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge…

12 Years a Slave

Solomon Northup

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2015 Challenge Prompts

Prompt 25: A book you were supposed to read in school but didn't
By Ann · 67 posts · 992 views

last updated Jan 17, 2023 03:51PM

Prompt 39: A book with magic
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last updated Jan 02, 2019 05:46AM

What Members Thought

Mar 03, 2015 Sarah rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: tv-movie

The unimaginable nature of Solomon Northup's experience makes it easy sometimes to mistake it for fiction. So many near brushes with death, foiled attempts at escape, and how delicately his eventual rescue balanced on a string of coincidences - it really does read like the plot of a Hollywood blockbuster, which makes the fact that it is completely true somehow even more harrowing. ...more

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Apr 24, 2014 Jeff Scott rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, memoir, audiobooks, slavery

Twelve Years a Slave was published at the same time as many other anti-slavery works. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Narrative of the Life of an American Slave, and other narratives were popular in the 1830s and 1840s. It’s this work that fully documents the life of a free black man who is captured and sold into slavery. He knows both sides of a life freedom and slavery and it makes the story that much more compelling. He has a life, a wife, and children that are waiting for him, wondering what happened to Twelve Years a Slave was published at the same time as many other anti-slavery works. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Narrative of the Life of an American Slave, and other narratives were popular in the 1830s and 1840s. It’s this work that fully documents the life of a free black man who is captured and sold into slavery. He knows both sides of a life freedom and slavery and it makes the story that much more compelling. He has a life, a wife, and children that are waiting for him, wondering what happened to him.

Soloman Northrup was a free black man living in Saratoga, New York with his wife and children. His grandparents were slaves, but freed when the slave-owner died. He runs a farm for a while, but then cashes out and works at a local hotel. He is known as a fine fiddler and his hired by a travelling circus. He takes ill one night and when he awakens, he is in chains and heading towards New Orleans. Despite his pleas that he is a free man, he is brutalized by the slave trader. He then lives the brutal life of a slave, detailing all of the atrocities and terrible slave-owners. He fights with some of the most wicked and escapes from others. Always his despair is that he will live out his days this way, away from his family and friends, none knowing his whereabouts or what happened to him. His return thanks to a rabblerousing neighbor’s intervention is miraculous.

The narrative is told in 19th Century English so it comes off as very formal. The effect emphasizes the dignity of the character despite horrible conditions. He is deposited in the very worst part of the South- New Orleans mix of cotton and sugar farming engaged in the most brutal of conditions. An uprising in 1808 of local slaves led to brutal crackdowns and local militias who were always on patrol. It made Northrup’s escape seem absolutely impossible. There are no shortcuts to his ordeal and there is even a court case to determine his freedom. This true story, along with other narratives and fiction, provided further evidence to rid the country of the “peculiar institution”. It’s a heartbreaking and bittersweet story. ...more

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Jun 19, 2019 Debbie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Solomon Northup’s memoir of being kidnapped and sold into slavery for twelve years, despite being a free man, is a chilling portrayal of a shameful time in American history.

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