Solomon Northup Paper
Solomon Northup Paper
Briana Barrett-Riddle
2/9/15
Reading the content in this book made me get a picture of what it was like to be a colored person in this time. My eyes were opened to the meaning of the word “nigga”. Nigga is such a derogatory term, yet now-a-days it is used by people so much. Kids in this generation use it as a term of endearment when they see their friends, or they say it when they are shocked by something. Frankly, I don’t believe they know how serious it really is. The fact that white people could look at a person and see less than a human being when they did nothing wrong distresses me. They (white people) treated them as if they were property and below them. Even though we don’t have racism to this extent anymore, it is still around. This book warns people of the moral cost of slavery and opens eyes to what was once common practice. With books like this around, what happened won’t be forgotten.
One theme that stood out to me the most was enduring hope. Solomon was kidnapped and removed from his family, abused, called a liar, stripped of his identity, extremely over-worked, and was forced to do things that he didn’t want to, he never gave up and called quits. Solomon decided, even with the situation that he was in, displayed a drive to keep going. The thought that he might see his family again and bring unjustness to the men who enslaved him was his hope. One person that really helped him through the tough times was Bass. Bass was a white person that understood the blacks, and that was refreshing to hear. One of my favorite things that he said when he was in a disagreement with Epps was, 1“These niggers are human beings,” adding, “And what difference is there in the color of the soul?” He saw how ridiculous it was to treat blacks so bad because they had a different color of skin. Others might have felt that way but Bass stands up about it. He essentially tells Epps that he needs to start treating his slaves better. This is when we see
Briana Barrett-Riddle
2/9/15
Reading the content in this book made me get a picture of what it was like to be a colored person in this time. My eyes were opened to the meaning of the word “nigga”. Nigga is such a derogatory term, yet now-a-days it is used by people so much. Kids in this generation use it as a term of endearment when they see their friends, or they say it when they are shocked by something. Frankly, I don’t believe they know how serious it really is. The fact that white people could look at a person and see less than a human being when they did nothing wrong distresses me. They (white people) treated them as if they were property and below them. Even though we don’t have racism to this extent anymore, it is still around. This book warns people of the moral cost of slavery and opens eyes to what was once common practice. With books like this around, what happened won’t be forgotten.
One theme that stood out to me the most was enduring hope. Solomon was kidnapped and removed from his family, abused, called a liar, stripped of his identity, extremely over-worked, and was forced to do things that he didn’t want to, he never gave up and called quits. Solomon decided, even with the situation that he was in, displayed a drive to keep going. The thought that he might see his family again and bring unjustness to the men who enslaved him was his hope. One person that really helped him through the tough times was Bass. Bass was a white person that understood the blacks, and that was refreshing to hear. One of my favorite things that he said when he was in a disagreement with Epps was, 1“These niggers are human beings,” adding, “And what difference is there in the color of the soul?” He saw how ridiculous it was to treat blacks so bad because they had a different color of skin. Others might have felt that way but Bass stands up about it. He essentially tells Epps that he needs to start treating his slaves better. This is when we see