12 Years of Slave Reflection

Iris Liu

Mr. Montgomery

IBSL English Year 1

February 17th 2017

12 Years a Slave Reflection

        Solomon Northup was a free black man in New York until he was kidnapped by two white men and became a slave in the South; his story reflects the truth of slavery in 19th century America. Even though I have already finished the unit on slavery in America and the American Civil War and learned about the brutality of slavery in History class last semester, I was still stunned by the violence and abuse the slaves experienced in the movie. This movie is about race issues, which could be a difficult topic to portray and talk about. Race issues exists in many eras and cultures in history, but most people decide to ignore this social issue. In my opinion, I believe that racial issues could not be ignored, and open our eyes to the realities of the world.

When Solomon was just kidnapped, he said “I want to survive. I want to live.” Also, when he heard Eliza, a female slave, who was crying because of her children, he asked “Can we live without survival?” This quote reminds me of the slaves’ dilemma of choosing between preserving their dignity and surviving on the master’s farm. Solomon believes that he should “survive to live”, to endure the brutality of slavery in order to be free. The slaves, coming from different backgrounds, have different perspectives toward this question. Even though many of us will choose dignity, for the slaves working for a planter like Master Epps, they would choose to succumb to the white people’s authority and allow themselves to be objectified in order to avoid punishment.

The end of the movie was very simple: Solomon reunited with his family after 12 years living in slavery. After comparing the simple life with family with the life as a slave on a plantation, the simple life with family seems particularly valuable. I was holding back my tears while viewing this scene and my reaction was to think about the conscience of human nature. Does it exist? Conscience is a person’s moral sense of right or wrong, and feeling guilty when deviating from the moral compass. I wondered if these white slave owners feel guilt after whipping or abusing their slaves, or they are used to this routine and feel nothing at all. Another question I was thinking about was freedom: is the definition of freedom universal? Is freedom a basic human right? What does freedom mean to different people? For us, freedom is to be able to do whatever we desire, but for the slaves, freedom is to break away from slavery. We can take freedom for granted: we can criticize our government, walk freely on the streets, have enough food, and say whatever we want, but for a slave in the US during the 19th century, these are all a part of their dream that could never come true.