Extra Credit;12 Years a Slave Movie

Over the weekend I watched the movie 12 Years a Slave, an autobiography by Solomon Northup. This movie is during the Pre-Civil war in the US. Solomon was one of the lucky African American people because he was a free slave. He was from New York (upstate) where he lived with his family; 2 kids and his wife. He was well off , a nice home, middle class family living among white families. He played the violin for a living.The movie shows us how Solomon ( a free slave) was abducted and sold into slavery. A brutal, intense and terrifying story. No words can express what he went through.
The film began with flashbacks he encountered in different plantations. It all started when he was offered to travel in a circus to play in their band. Two white men approached him (since he was known in his town for his talents) of course they explained the cost per day (which was a dollar a day) and he decided to take their offer. All three went to dinner, started drinking however they poisoned his drink and went down hill from there. Once he woke up he found himself hand cuffed and his feet cuffed in a dungeon.He could not move and was very confused. This is when he tells us his journey of being a slave. He went on the middle passage (a ship full of slaves, not enough space, females being raped, and the slaves are being beaten for no reason. He was given a new identity ( given a new name) when he tried to correct the white people, they would beat him. He was taken to get sold to wealthy white people. The slaves are stripped down naked and are put on display for the white people to choose. The head master (the person in charge of selling the slaves) basically advertises the men/woman's abilities for example what they are capable of doing. I was shocked, they were being treated like a piece of meat. The details presented in the film is very gruesome like beating the slaves for instance, tying the slaves to a pole and whipping their backs until blood is gushing out, hanging them and just torturing them. Northup was a free man, he knew how to read and write and his vocab level was higher than most slaves.He worked with 3 different slave owners.
The movie was portrayed very well, the actors brought emotion and pain to the film. I honestly cried watching the movie. It was very hard to see the pain the slaves had to go through, the struggle just to survive.This movie is nothing compare to other terrifying stories. It was very hard to swallow the thought of what these slaves had to go through. Solomon was a free black man, he was born free. but that all changed in a matter of seconds. I couldn't imagine what non free African Americans had to go through. I do recommend to watch this movie, it truly captures the intense world of slavery and how a born free man cant escape the world of slavery.


The 2 men that abducted him;                                  


    
Cotton plantations
His family;                
         
                                                           Getting off the ship. Getting ready to be sold.