Solomon Northup (1808-1857?) was an American farmer, carpenter and canal worker from New York state. He was kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841 – not an uncommon thing for free blacks in those days. After 12 years a slave in Louisiana he was freed and wrote “Twelve Years a Slave” (1853). He became an abolitionist – but then suddenly disappeared in 1857, never to be heard from again.
The book has been made into a film twice:
- “Solomon Northup’s Odyssey” (1984), directed by Gordon Parks for PBS. Stars Avery Brooks.
- “Twelve Years a Slave” (2013), directed by black British director Steve McQueen, written with John Ridley. Stars Chiwetel Ejiofor.
Note: The photos come from the 2013 film, but the post is based on the book.
Unlike “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, which came out the year before, his book seems to be a matter-of-fact account of slavery. Even historians use it. He wrote it with the help of David Wright, a white writer.
He does not claim to know what slavery was like throughout the South, just what it was like in the middle of Louisiana:
Slaves were not content, contrary to a common white belief. The only happy time of year was the few days they got off for Christmas. They thought about running away or rising up against their masters all the time. Slaves understood perfectly well what freedom was, despite their masters trying to keep them in fear and ignorance.
Some masters were kind, others cruel. One taught him from Scripture and took his ideas seriously. Another tried to kill him.
Edwin Epps, his master of ten years, thought blacks were little better than monkeys. He whipped them all the time, often for little things or for nothing at all. Sometimes to the point where they could not move for days. Sometimes to the point where it crushed their spirit and they were never the same again. One slave (old Uncle Abram) he stabbed. Another slave (Patsey) he raped regularly – causing his wife in turn to have her whipped out of jealousy.
Sometimes Epps would come home drunk and, whip in hand, force his slaves to dance all night long for his entertainment. He forced Northup, a violin player, to provide the tune.
One of the most painful things was being separated from one’s
family. Northup thought of his wife and three children up north
constantly. He saw one woman’s life ripped apart after she was sold away
from her two small children. She never saw them again.
Nearly all the money he made in those 12 years went to his masters.
Unlike most slaves, Northup could read and write – and swim. Swimming meant he could escape the dogs sent after runaways.
Slaves were not allowed to use the post office. It was hard even to get paper and ink. Several months after his third attempt to send a letter north, a white man he knew from New York appeared one morning, walking across the cotton field towards him. And then he was freed.
See also:
- 12 Years a Slave – the film
- American slavery
- American abolitionists
- darkies
- drapetomania
- Related to the films:
- Gordon Parks
- Red Tails – another film John Ridley worked on
- The most gorgeous black man in the world – Ejiofor is #3
What changes did they do between the book and the two movies?
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I think i need to see this movie, perhaps tonight. ^_^
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The abuse in that film was horrific. There is no way post traumatic slave syndrome doesn’t exist.
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@jefe, In the movie he only has two children
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I read that Solomon Northrup’s mother was a quadroon. Did that come out in the book or movie?
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The movie was pretty graphic in its display of violence (including rape). Of course, it’s also been criticized as being too severe…which, uh, that’s the point. That zippity doo dah ish was invented by Hollywood to keep southerners in theater seats.
I didn’t realize Northrup “disappeared” without a trace in 1857. That’s a mystery worth exploring, although I can only imagine what might have happened to him.
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I love that reference (not the messages in that movie of course). I saw “Song of the South” when I was a small child (probably during 1972 Disney’s 50th anniversary revival) so I don’t really remember it except for hearing the terms “Uncle Remus” and Br’er Rabbit”.
A post on THAT movie and story would be great (comparing it to movies like the one in this post).
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I’ve been thinking about seeing this film, but I dunno.
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Another Liberal left funded ‘Remake’ to keep racism and the racism industry alive and kicking…not to mention strengthen those puppet strings of african american voters, particularly the liberal unAmerican racist types….pathetic
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Between this history made real on the big screen, and racist laws explained in crystal clarity in Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow – the U.S. has serious soul searching to do – especially European Americans (aka whites).
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[…] Solomon Northup (1808-1857?) was an American farmer, carpenter and canal worker from New York state. He was kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841 – not an uncommon thing for free blacks in those … […]
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[…] See on abagond.wordpress.com […]
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@With Love Glenn
That Rwandan Genocide is something you people need to do some soul searching on….1,000,000 people killed in three months and numbers of them with machetes is just brutal! In that small a time frame that is more murders than Nazi Germany and Khmer Rouge committed put together!!!!!!!! The brutality of your people is astounding…please ask human kind for forgiveness for your brutality.
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@ Peanut
Thanks for the correction – the dances were not a one-time thing.
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We are in November now. Why are we still discussing October topics?
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^ LOL
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October has a point tho..
The atrocity in Rwanda does need some looking into. Some looking into that I have done.
Only to find that the Belgians were chiefly responsible for it taking place. Soooooooo…yeah October. That would be you guys yet again.
Also, blacks did not promote, nor were they behind the holocaust, or Khmer Rouge. Folks of Caucasian descent have this genocide thing down to a t, now don’t they?
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OFF TOPIC: genocide.
I just did a post on the atrocity argument where you can debate it:
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No thanks abagond, my point was made
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If one has the stomach for it to research slavery in America is to research the truest nature of the so called white race.
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The film was jarring and hard to watch. It was well acted. My friend and I cried. We had red eyes walking out the theater, I felt numb and speechless. The images were in my head for a couple of days. I am glad I saw it. I would like to read the book. The depravity of the cruel slave master and the resilience of the slaves and Northup himself, made me thankful we don’t live in that horrible time.
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One of the many memorable characters to me was Mistress Shaw, she lived better than the slaves and was equal to the white slave owners wives on the plantation. Patsy broke my heart.
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Northup was literate. It was mentioned that a slave being able to read and write could be a deadly thing. Northup, was a literate man and had a sharp mind. This infuriated the slave overseer.
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I read the book a long time ago while in Jr. High sitting in the lunchroom reading it made horror stories pale. I was shaking as I read it, I think that was the last time I visited books like that until the end of high school. It was the only time I read a book and thought I am really not ready for this experience I need to mature a lot more and I am not handling the ideas, notions, a message right. I still have not picked up reading it and I think I could do better with it I will however skip the movie.
Like “Black Boy” reading “Twelve Years a Slave” it was like swallowing a thistle plant. I think about all the hard times I had and I think there goes the person who made it threw harder times.
I could have used a real teacher to help me through those books when I was younger. Few and far between will go there. I believe because of both of these books, that in the very core of black thought that fear is the first master to get over. The second one is racism is more about control than anything else, control of thought, money and place.
It is also why I think in America that people have to keep vigils over where this country is heading. With the technology we have now-a-days to slide even a few steps back into those dark times would be much worst. It would make those days seem more like the wonder years.
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Has anyone read the book AND seen the movie? If so, how do the two compare?
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As I sat in the movie theater, I looked around at the white people in the theater and wondered if they were being affected by the film as I was? I wondered if the film would give them pause, and if they would reflect about what they’d just seen? I said in my previous post my friend and I were red eyed from crying, because certain scenes in the film were quite graphic and disturbing. I wondered if the film had this effect on the white movie goers?
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that is crazy he disappeared, I read newspaper said rumor was he was recaptured again and sold into slavery. Idk what happened he could’ve been killed to silence him. Reminds me of sojourner truth’s son peter was freed from slavery but once he got a job on a ship he wasn’t heard from again. I’m glad things like this come to light but its sad to not know what happened to him.
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dang poor patsey, getting abused by the master and his wife smh. I wonder what happened to her, I can’t see how anybody can go through emotional, sexual, and physical abuse and be ok. It would be interesting to know what happened to her, but probably also very upsetting.
That is sick he’d have them dance all night long , why can’t he just pass out like every other drunk and leave ppl alone.
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I’ve learned to be skeptical of what I read and see on television. Nothing happens by accident. Even when true, the plots are scripted and designed to evoke certain reactions. As abagond points out, this book was written a year after Uncle Tom’s Cabin and less than ten years before the Civil War. I can see plenty of political motivation for fabrication. Similarly, I can see plenty of political motivation for making such a movie today. I consider books and movies like this to be ‘race porn’. I’ve seen a few go the other way and I don’t have much use for those, either. I don’t care to be manipulated.
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Why is it that when people like October hear about the brutality of slavery they always like to try and minimize, deflect, and lie about what happened to Black people. October I wish with every fiber of my being that I could take you on a tour through time as a Black person, and I wish you could have stood in ‘the door of no return’ that I stood in while visiting Africa. After hearing the narrative of what was done to Black people before they even hit these shores, and continues to happen to this very day. Just curious, are you from Stormfront or one of those sites, because I sense that rather than listen and learn, you would prefer to troll this website. Would it be too much for you to ask intelligent questions and learn? Why do so many people of your ilk tend to do this? I suspect it is a counter productive way to outsmart the so called “Negro” by putting people on the defensive, and getting answers that way, then attempting to take the information you glean, and use it to refine your propaganda? All of your talking points sound like they come from Fox news, or one of the websites I have referenced, againd why do you keep coming here? For what purpose? I guess some of the posters here are right, it is November already.
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@peanut
“…makes you look at white people differently…”
*******
Everyone is different than everyone else. Yet TYPICAL white folks DIFFERENCES (and similarities) are on a whole other level.
(groups: KKK, Neo-Nazis, Conservatives, Tea Party, Storm Front, etc plus individuals like Da Joka, Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson, Randy, et al …)
Condescending
Arrogant
Soulless/Spiritless
Delusional
Loyal to whiteness
Borg-like mentality
Self-possessed
Insatiable
Apathetic
Dangerous
Apprehensive
Haughty
Smug
Schizoid
Afraid
Invaders
Zero-sum players
Controllers
Enablers
Over Privileged
So yes, you should SEE THEM DIFFERENTLY because they ARE. They’ve set themselves up to be strange, separate and apart from humanity!
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Da Jokah, unless you are running around naked and in a cave without anything you are to a point being manipulated. You can’t help, call it culture, upbringing, or just being immerse in a commercial culture. If you are not eating generic food you are being guided to brands. However Solomon Northup is a well documented case. Even around to courts where he tried to go after those who had enslaved him.
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There are so many interesting stories about that time in American history — how slavery affected not only black people, but also Native Americans, and even whites, especially white women of the plantation class, and also poor whites and those without resources or connections. Not surprisingly, though, there are many people who have no interest in understanding or learning from those stories, and want to shut down and silence any dialog that might emanate from them. Cough, cough, Da Jokah, cough, October…
For black folks, those stories are important because they provide insight about where we are now, but also illustrate how resilient we are, as well as how we managed to survive and even triumph under the worst of circumstances. For example, there are some FANTASTIC stories that recount daring escapes, of fighting back, of outsmarting and outwitting slavers not just for survival, but with an eye on the ultimate prize: freedom. Young people today could learn a lot from our history in that respect.
White people need these stories for all the obvious reasons, but also to see how most of them have been used as unwitting pawns to further an agenda by elite whites whose real intent is to keep people pitted against each other. While we fight one another they rob and pillage and plunder, hoping that no one will notice. It’s the ultimate shell game, and, unfortunately, most whites (and many POC) have bought into it, thinking it’s fair and just, and that they too will get a shot at winning. But it ain’t gonna happen. Not as long as people continue to believe in the lie.
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@posters
Those who look at whites differently because of this movie(racism) the left has already fufilled their purpose by funding this trash….I cannot believe you people do not see how movies like this fuel the liberal left against the GOP the true party of the American way of life(freedom and self sufficiency) ….of course most of you are the racist type for which this movie feeds your own warped psyche…disgusting..
@anom
Why is it when a white poster who differs with your perpetual victim role automatically presumed to be a white supremacist?? Jesus H Christ you people are so consumed by your racism and victimhood…
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@ abagond. Thank you. Another one of your “disturbing” threads! 😀
Solomon Northup’s story put me in mind of the story of Robert Wedderburn, the radical anti-slavery leader in England during the 18th century.
Robert Wedderburn was born a free man in Jamaica, the son of a Scottish doctor, and his slave, Rosanna in 1762. The Scottish doctor had several children with other slaves in his ownership, and Rosanna had borne the Scotsman 2 other children before she gave birth to Robert. Whilst she was 5 months pregnant with him, his father sold his mother back to her former owner.
Though he himself was born free, the young Robert grew up watching both his mother and grandmothers’ regular rape and flogging by their masters.
(From his atuo-biography “The Horrors of Slavery and Other Writings”)
Robert Wedderburn fled the island and went to England seeing much hardship and horror on the way, eventually joining the other “Blackbirds” in Georgian England. The Blackbirds were a community that consisted of not just ex-slaves of African descent, but also some Jews and Irish, AND — large numbers of Lascars — Indian or Bengali fighting men or sailors escaping a life of exploitation by European colonialists: (http://www.southampton.ac.uk/archaeology/research/projects/lascar_lives_and_the_east_india_company.page)
Robert Wedderburn survived in the Georgian and Regency slums, as tailor, conspirator, thief, yet, it turned out he was an ancestor of:
“…the scalemaking Wedderburn line, Robert was one of several illegitimate children fathered by James Wedderburn of Inveresk, Jamaican plantation owner. Robert was a grandson of Sir John Wedderburn of Blackness, whose family fled to Jamaica after defeat at Culloden in 1746. Sir John himself was captured, tried for treason, then hung, drawn and quartered by the English.
…{he was} ostracized by the Wedderburns who for many years claimed he had no right to the Wedderburn name … {he was}… a strategic player in fomenting popular unrest in the cause of republicanism, whilst remaining faithful to his West Indian roots and promoting the case for the abolition of slavery, he was to be imprisoned and sentenced to hard labour for his outspoken radical views.”
(From the “euroleader” webpage)
Once when he was destitute, Wedderburn approached his wealthy family, who turned him away with a broken sixpence and beverage.
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@peanut: What did you think of the character of mistress shaw portray by Alfre Woodard. Just interested in what you thought about her?
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@ Peanut: That is a fair enough.
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I am sure there are hundreds more slave narratives similar to Solomon Northup’s.
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Trouble
Da Jokah, unless you are running around naked and in a cave without anything you are to a point being manipulated. You can’t help, call it culture, upbringing, or just being immerse in a commercial culture. If you are not eating generic food you are being guided to brands.
My family and friends would laugh at that. It’s less true of me than anyone you’ve ever met.
However Solomon Northup is a well documented case. Even around to courts where he tried to go after those who had enslaved him.
I don’t doubt the general facts. It’s the details that have no evidence.
Maybe they’re true. Maybe they’re embellished. Maybe they’re fabrication.
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@ mary burrell, agreed.
I bet there are many stories heart-breaking histories like Solomon Northup and Robert Wedderburn like I mentioned, out there.
Some of the narratives are hard to read, and neither are they easy to mention on a blog like this. If I have the time (and stomach for it,) I will add something in the next day or 2 on the thread.
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@Bulanik, thank you for responding. Always enjoy your input.
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@ Mary
There are hundreds of American slave narratives. The best is probably that of Frederick Douglass because he was literate enough not to depend on a white writer and had a forceful command of the English language.
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We have hundreds of written accounts by former slaves. They tell of rape, torture, sadism, overwork, family separations and too little food and clothing. They were not imagining it: an old African graveyard discovered in New York City showed that even children suffered from joint pain and torn muscles, presumably from being made to carry loads too heavy for them. Half of those in the graveyard were under 12, most of them not babies.
From:
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@Abagond: I was going to add Frederick Douglass to my list. Thanx, for responding
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@ mary, you’re welcome. I thought you might appreciate a slave narrative that wasn’t American that had parallels with the subject of this post.
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@bulanik: I appreciate everything I can learn and read about. Thanx, for the knowledge.
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@ mary, I am no different than you and am never embarrassed to say:
“I don’t know”.
Truth be told. I LOVE learning about American history. Why else am I here?
I didn’t know about Solomon Northup a year ago, so I am always glad for the knowledge.
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I realize there are other perspectives besides the American narratives when it comes to slavery, African slaves were dropped off everywhere around the globe. I like reading about other perspectives on this topic as well.
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I’m past halfway through the book. There is no excuse for the stuff that was done to stolen people. This is a painful read. A shameful read.
As Mr Northup is long deceased, I see no reason for anyone else to profit from his story. The book is available FOC at the following torrent link. (This may not be legal.)
https://thepiratebay.sx/torrent/9106431/
Abagond, I mean no discourtesy by posting a link to that site, which I know is widely frowned upon by US (and UK) establishment. Please delete if inappropriate.
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@October,
I figured you would probably avoid answering the questions I asked. Anyway, After all it’s November already…so I’m done.
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This is the stuff that should be in our high school history classes. 😦
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@Bulanik, thanks you for sharing the story of Robert Wedderburn. I had not heard of him.
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@ Peanut as an aside and completely off topic. I have not seen the movie, but Mistress Shaw is living the BWE dream. She’s married to a White man and getting to be the Mistress of the Manor protected from the fate that Blackness brings in this society by her White Knight in shining armor.
But seriously, more than likely she was just a free woman that made a choice that kept her safe and probably would ensure a far better life for any children she might of had. She probably separated herself from the group and went for self. I sincerely hope she was not cruel to their slaves while trying to secure a good life for herself.
Maybe she was America’s answer to Brazil’s Xica de Silva. By the way Xica really did go for self. From what I read she pretty much lived as a White woman and was only known to have freed 1 slave in her entire life time. If true, that was a real shame. All of that power and wealth Xica wielded was used to uphold, instead of tear down, White supremacy.
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@ Destiny, that’s appreciated.
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Reblogged this on revealingartisticthoughts and commented:
Wow.
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Is this a movie that will leave the white peopling feeling like heroes after watching it? I’m so sick of the kowtowing to white people that so many movies with topics like this do. So damned sick of the white saviors. (sort of related: I really want to see Elysium because I like sci-fi but can’t subject myself to yet another movie where the white hero has a brown girl to save. Ugh.)
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haha, “white peopling” 🙂
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@ sondis,
Yeah me too.
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@ jefe
You said, “We are in November now. Why are we still discussing October topics?”
Uh because months don’t mean shit when compared to racism Lol. I’m a troll-eater by the way; which means I’m on everbody’s side who don’t like racists such as Da Jokah. So please if you guys need a racist to be put in there place, I’m your guy.
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@ punkypine
u know I noticed it too, I notice they make slave movies pretty much only when a white person had a hand in freeing them. Django, white man frees him, this movie, white man comes to free him. I know this story must be told but what about the black slaves that saved themselves, that weren’t rescued by a white person. What about harriet tubman, she escaped on her own and helped others escape, what about sojourner truth she escaped, and countless others that escaped including real lone ranger who was black, he took his freedom. This is why I feel a certain way when ppl say this is ur history why are yall complaining why don’t u see it. I will more than likely see it when it comes on dvd or something but I also see there isn’t a movie made about us before slavery or a movie about heroic black people and rarely a movie about a successful black person. I’m not ashamed to see our ancestors and their plight but at the same time our history does not end nor begin with slavery it’s like a story that is told but instead of reading the story from the beginning u read it from the middle chapter and don’t continue reading and its like black ppl were captured and shipped to the Americas and were slaves, the end. This is why so far I only like roots because they showed before during and after slavery, they told the whole story not just one part of it.
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and countless others that escaped including real lone ranger who was black, he took his freedom.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_Ranger
Captain John Hughes is seated in a chair at the far right.
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[…] Solomon Northup (abagond.wordpress.com) […]
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“I notice they make slave movies pretty much only when a white person had a hand in freeing them….What about harriet tubman, she escaped on her own and helped others escape….”
In freeing herself and many others from slavery, Harriet Tubman most certainly did receive assistance from the white individuals who offered their homes and property to her and her group as way stations along the route to freedom, aka “the Underground Railroad”.
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The record of mankinds cruelty is older than the bible. What interests me is our ability to disconnect these histories in order to avoid the deeper question about human behavior i.e.Are we genetically programmed to be so ? Biologists who have observed our genetically closest animal relatives, the chimpanzees and other primates, might shed some light on the subject. In the mean time we will continue to compare one human’s suffering to another’s not realizing they are the same At one time or another in our collective histories all people have been enslaved.One can either repeat history or follow the lead of one of the greatest leaders of the 21st century,Nelson Mandela, and rise above our ‘animal instinct’ urges for ‘pay back’ .
How old is slavery? check it out!
http://wysinger.homestead.com/mentuhotep.html
Kemsit, the Nubian queen of the Egyptian King Mentuhotep II (2061-2010 B.C.), and her servants; from a painting in her tomb chamber wall; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; from Naville, The XI Dynasty Temples at Deir el-Bahri III (London: Egypt Exploration Fund, 1913), pl 3. See also Part One.
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From ‘The Guardian’:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/02/benedict-cumberbatch-sorry-for-slave-owners-family?CMP=fb_gu
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Nice to see Solomon’s story will be coming to public schools……
“NSBA partners with filmmakers to distribute “12 Years a Slave” to public high schools
The National School Boards Association (NSBA) is partnering with New Regency, Penguin Books, and the filmmakers to distribute copies of the acclaimed film, book, and study guide 12 Years a Slave to America’s public high schools.
The initiative, coordinated by Montel Williams, will start to distribute 12 Years a Slave nationwide in September 2014 in concert with the new school year. It is modeled against an initiative Williams launched to distribute the Civil War film Glory to public high schools that ultimately led to The Montel Williams Show.
“12 Years a Slave is one of the most impactful films in recent memory, and I am honored to have been able to bring together Fox Searchlight and National School Boards Association to maximize its educational potential. When Hollywood is at its best, the power of the movies can be harnessed into a powerful educational tool. This film uniquely highlights a shameful period in American history, and in doing so will evoke in students a desire to not repeat the evils of the past while inspiring them to dream big of a better and brighter future, and I’m proud to be a part of that,” said Williams.”
http://schoolboardnews.nsba.org/2014/02/nsba-new-regency-penguin-books-and-the-filmmakers-to-distribute-12-years-a-slave-to-public-high-schools/
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I saw “12 Years A Slave” at the Marin Film Festival. The audience was mostly white. At times the theater was absolutely quiet, except for the sobs of those crying at the brutality on the screen. I had tears running down my face, but so did many of the white people in attendance.
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