12 Years Slavery

When people think of civil war and the negative aspects that come along with it, most think of slavery and its’ brutal personality. Unlike most other major countries during the 19th century, America still had not abolished slavery nationwide, and almost all slaves were blacks. Many different situations arose from slavery, after all it is what caused the civil war, but on a person to person level, slavery was full of negatives and contain very few, if any, positives. The film, 12 Years a Slave, portrays the life of Solomon Northup, a free black who was kidnapped and sold into slavery. 12 Years does a good job of showing the harsh conditions most slaves dealt with and how cruel their masters could be. The movie brings up very destructive sides
Eventually, though, through the use of education and the printing press, books and newspaper became more and more widespread. The ability of reading to become a commonplace is what finally dragged Europe out of the Dark Age. Some time later when America was in the 1800’s, slaveholders banned slaves from learning to read and write. A substantial part of the American population were slaves and in turn, illiteracy was almost just as common as being able to read. For example, in 12 Years A Slave, when people found out that Solomon can read, almost every person reacted the same. First, the people would be astonished that a slave could read and write, and then they would tell him to not let anyone know about it. Masters did not want slaves to be able to read or write because they did not want the slaves to be able to communicate in any other way than talking, as it was much harder to escape when everything had to be said aloud. But when Solomon is actually caught writing a letter he gets threatened and must make an excuse to save his life. This attitude towards education is saddening and 12 Years A Slave captures that
The slave traders left his family alone, scared, and helpless. They told him that he was going to perform in several places that were not far away. Given that these jobs would not take a long time, Solomon believed he did not need to make his family aware of where he was going. This is why his family never truly knows what happens to Solomon until they begin to receive letters from him towards the end. Sadly, this situation is not unique to Solomon, almost every slave was detached and removed from their families. Sometimes, slaves would be bought at very young ages and would never see their families again. Obviously, this had disastrous effects on slaves and their livelihood. This is very evident in 12 Years A Slave, there are countless times when Solomon loses almost all his hope and says that he only wants to see his family one more time. There is also another slave, Eliza, who is separated from her children and cries for days, depicting another bitter form of punishment slavery has to