The Cruelty Of Slave Owners In 12 Years A Slave

This book was written by Solomon Northup and it is about the time in his life when he was a slave. Solomon was born in New York as a free man but was kidnapped while on a trip to Washington. In the book, he talks about the hardships of slavery and describes his experiences with different owners and people during his twelve years as a slave. Throughout the book, he points out that not all slaveholders were cruel and bitter; that some owners were genuine and humble men.

The story begins with a detailed description of his family background. Solomon’s father was emancipated so he was born a free man. He lived a successful life in New York with a wife and kids. He was an excellent violin player and a laborer who had a prosperous life. In 1841, he went to Washington D.C. to work in a circus and was kidnapped. He was then put up for sale in the Washington D.C. slave market and was sold to a slave owner in New Orleans, Louisiana. Solomon spent the next 12 years in slavery before finding a way to contact his family and get rescued. He mainly described and compared his experiences with different slave owners. From his experience as a slave, he realized that not all slave owners are cruel but that some have morals and kindness.

The main argument of this book is that slavery was brutal and a terrible system but that not all slave owners were bitter, inhumane men. “The treatment he received while at the “Pine Woods” shows that among slaveholders there are men of humanity as well as of cruelty. Some of them are spoken of with emotions of gratitude- Others in a spirit of bitterness,” said David Wilson. The book has accomplished showing detailed descriptions of the hardships slaves endured daily as well as the personalities of the slave owners themselves. Solomon was beaten with a paddle by a slaveholder named James Burch until it the paddle broke just because he was informing them that he was a free man but Burch did not care. He did not see Solomon as an equal and sold him into slavery because he was African American. Burch completely disregarded Solomon as being a person and saw him as a piece of property. On the other hand, Solomon had a slave owner named William Ford and he said, “there never was a more kind, noble, candid, Christian man than William Ford.” Solomon had respect and gratitude for Ford because he was a fair and caring slave owner who did not punish his slaves out of spitefulness or for no reason. Unfortunately, for the most part, Solomon’s experiences in the slave system were inhumane. One of his masters, named John Tibeats, tied Solomon’s wrists and ankles together and was going to hang him for protecting himself from getting whipped for obtaining the wrong sized nails. Solomon was then left out in the burning sun physically unable to move for the whole day. This is just one of the many inhumane punishments that happened to Solomon.

The subject of this book is slavery and racism. Solomon did cover the subject of slavery and racism adequately. He makes it clear that he thinks racism is how slave owners justify their actions towards slaves. The slave owner that showed the most racism and cruelty was Edwin Epps. He would make the slaves run around the field at night to avoid getting whipped just for fun. Epps was extremely violent his son was disrespecting the slaves as well because it was all he had seen growing up. Solomon said that racism is a learned behavior and Epps influencing his son’s racist actions clearly shows that a person is taught how to be racist, not born that way. In the book, Solomon says that Epps’ son sees the slaves as animals and has no respect for them. In the book, a man named Bass asked Epps what the difference was and Epps said it was like comparing a white person to an animal. Solomon was extremely detailed when writing about the racism he encountered during his years in very harsh slavery.

Solomon structures his argument by describing his experiences chronologically throughout his time as a slave. He begins the story with his life before he was kidnapped which led people to understand the cruelty of men and that he was being forced into slavery as a free man. He then describes the process of getting sold to a slave owner and the harsh treatment he was given during that time. After that, Solomon builds on his points about racism and the different types of slave owners he encountered to form his argument. Solomon’s argument makes sense because he gets his point across clearly.

This book has helped me learn what slavery is actually like and to fully understand the extent of how cruel and malicious slave owners truly are. Though, I also learned that not all slave owners have to be brutal people unlike what most people are led to believe. Some slave-owning men were kind and humble. The book did increase and clarify my knowledge of the subject because it provided real-life descriptions of what some slave owners actually thought like Epps. This book would be a useful source of information because it is a primary source from a time period when slavery was a major issue being discussed.