Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup

Mohur · Mar 26, 2014

I am afraid that I am guilty this time around of watching the movie before reading the book.

Twelve Years a Slave is Solomon Northup’s story of how he was kidnapped, drugged, beaten and sold off as a slave. It is a detailed account of 12 years of his life that he spent as a slave. The brutalities that he had to endure, the psychological torture that it was and the stories of the people who touched his life in one way or the other. He not only narrates his own story, but through knowing him and his life we learn more about other slaves, slave catchers, the general conditions of a slave and also the relationship between the master and a slave.

I wish that this was a piece of fiction so that I could just say that it was brilliantly ‘plotted’ and skillfully narrated and move on.

But that is not the case… this isn’t just some fiction but the dark facts of humanity. When we hear about slaves, we pity them thinking that they had a hard and difficult life. But to hear the first hand account of that life breaks your heart so badly. It was so difficult to imagine that a person had to live a life like that and then go back to our own comfortable lives. His trials and tribulations over those years are bound to touch a person in the most deepest ways - to be beaten physically in an inhuman manner may still be bearable, but the psychological torture that it was and the effect it can have on a person is so immense.

Solomon Northup’s life will touch everyone who reads this book and maybe even influence the readers to treat others better. And while the film deserved the Oscars, it is not even close to the book’s emotional dynamite!

A MUST READ

shriganeshkrupa · Apr 8, 2014

Movie is excellent and a must watch,excellently acted and directed

PriyaSrini · Apr 12, 2014

Thank you for the gist Mohur. I've added this book to my to-read list. Will share my thoughts here then, hopefully sometime soon.

PriyaSrini · Sep 25, 2014

I am currently reading this book, and as Mohur has shared in her review, this book is gut wrenching. When reading I would hope all that is said in this book is not real but a fiction. How can a person do this to another? And then I came across an account by Isaac Johnson, another slave from the same time period as Solomon Northup. Click on Isaac Johnson, 1844-1905. Slavery Days in Old Kentucky. A True Story of a Father Who Sold His Wife and Four Children. By One of the Children. (property of University of North Carolina), to read Isaac's story.

Those who have read Twelve years of a slave, will find many parallels in Isaac's account. For all others, read them both and share your comments here.