Twelve Years a Slave Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, from a Cotton Plantation Near the Red River in Louisiana

A narrative that tells the story of Northup, a freeman who was kidnapped into slavery. A sad narrative indeed, but what made it so dull was the detailed descriptions of how the sugar and cotton plantations were looked after. The reason to why I gave it 2 stars only was because I wanted to quit reading it more than once, the only thing that kept me reading was that I was halfway through. I very much liked the ending, but it could have been more interesting.

Okay! Let me be honest! So i’ve watched the movie before i read this book, and thank god, when i read the book, i get the clear & view picture in my head the pain that Platt have kept to himself for 12 years. 12 years as a slave. I can’t imagine how a person, or any one, just because the color, the culture, the mother-language is different, must’ve a free-letter and have to fight just to prove that one is a free-man? If you’re halfway through the book and you have no idea how the slavery looked like, i recommend you to watch the movie first and then only you started to read the book, you’ll get the picture. To conclude, everyone’s lives matter 🤍

"Let not those who have never been placed in like circumstances, judge me harshly. Until they have been chained and beaten - until they find themselves in the situation I was, borne away from home and family towards a land of bondage - let them refrain from saying what they would not do for liberty." 12 Years a Slave is an autobiography/memoir written by Solomon Northup about the times when freedom was taken away from him and he was turned into a slave. Solomon Northup is a freeman who lives in Saratoga, New York, with his wife and children. He's a skilled carpenter and violinist; so when one day two men offered him a high-wage job as a musician for a traveling circus, Northup doesn't hesitate and quickly agreed to it - without informing his wife who was away for work. He traveled with the two men, Brown and Hamilton. But then Northup started feeling really sick until he fell unconscious. Unfortunately, when he's awake, he found out that he was drugged and chained in the cell of a slave pen... Read the full review here: http://www.thebookielooker.com/2014/0...

"I don't want to survive, I want to live" - Solomon Northup This book was such a heartbreaking book. Solomon's story was such a depressing one, I could not imagine how a human can even endure being a slave. After reading this, it made me think about the other slaves who were left to die as a slave. This book makes me grateful this generation had improved, though it's not the best, it improved nonetheless. Would recommend if you want to read something more serious and if you want to know more about how slaves were treated.

This was a very sad record of slavery in the US. Solomon’s voice in narrating 12 years of her life is very clear and the facts are well-depicted. You can tell it feels like a true testimony of his life, with no embellishments or sugar coating. For the whole book I kept feeling so angry at the injustice faced by Solomon, and my everyone around him. While he was a free man who was kidnapped into slavery, many people around him were born as slaves and could never really escape their condition, and both situations felt so humanly wrong.

It has been on my heart to read this book for some time, and I decided to do so during Black History Month. Solomon Northup's narrative is absolutely heart-wrenching and difficult to read, but it is also an important reminder of the long history of struggles black people have endured. In listening to his experiences, I feel as I did when reading The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, utterly shocked and disgusted by the hypocrisy of slave traders and holders. The ability these men and women possessed to justify their biases and inhumanity is a stark reminder to consider our own attitudes and look for where we can improve. Something I appreciate about this book is the perspective it lends on the evil of slavery as a system. Northup writes honestly about his experience as a slave, discussing in detail both owners who treated him with decency and owners who treated him most cruelly. But ultimately, he draws a definitive conclusion that no amount of "proper treatment" of a slave can make owning another human being inoffensive. These decent owners, according to Northup's account, were the exception to the rule, and despite their humanity, continually fueled an evil institution with their attitudes, money and influence. I am reminded never to view "decency" in slaveholding as an argument to diminish its wickedness.

Pro: Solomon Northup's life, interaction with reader Con: the harsh and inhuman conditions I saw the movie before I read the book. I found the movie beautiful but it also left me with a heartbreaking feeling. When I came across the book in my library, I couldn't help but want to read it. The book is beautifully written. It almost makes you forget, that Solomon really lived these twelve years. As a person who grew up without slavery, I cannot for the life of me imagine how some of the slave traders or masters behave, think and justify their ways. Being glad that Solomon in the end was freed, I do continue to feel bad for all the other slaves who weren't born free and had no chance of escaping slavery. A beautiful book that makes you think.

Slave narratives, as a genre, gripped Northern readers in the mid-1800s. Frederick Douglass's famed narrative is still the most famous — deservedly so — but Northup's tale is equally well-written and even more dramatic. (Northup had help with the writing, but still.) In 1841, Solomon was living a relatively good life as a free black man in New York state. He was working partly as a musician, and was offered a traveling gig from a couple of white dudes. He readily accepted, and the short version of the story is that he was drugged and sold into slavery. Just like that. Of course he tried to plead his innocence, but it was an impossible case to make once you were in the hands of slaveholders. To rub salt into the already horrendous wound, he was in Washington, D.C., a town that was supposedly the bastion of freedom: "The voices of patriotic representatives boasting of freedom and equality, and the rattling of the poor slave's chains, almost commingled. A slave pen within the very shadow of the Capitol!" From there he ended up in the bayous of Louisiana, and labored for 12 years as a slave. He was not on a large plantation, but rather a smaller farm with a handful of undeserving prisoners. The real strength of the narrative is in its incredible portrayal of the daily life of a slave: what they ate (not much), how they slept (very little), the process of picking cotton (backbreaking) . . . and of course the daily threat and reality of whippings. At one heartbreaking point, Northup is even forced by his master to brandish the whip himself. I've not even touched on the incredible story of his rescue and release, which was put into motion by the fortuitous meeting of an abolitionist carpenter who worked on Solomon's behalf at great personal risk. To sum up, 12 Years a Slave is a great, if at times heartbreaking story. But you know that there's a happy ending! So it's a little better, I guess. Also, it's short and easy-reading. You have no excuse, so get to it.

2.5*, the writing style is very monotonous, making it difficult to stay focused.

This book was such a heartbreaking book. Solomon's story was such a depressing one, I could not imagine how a human can even endure being a slave. After reading this, it made me think about the other slaves who were left to die as a slave. This book makes me grateful this generation had improved, though it's not the best, it improved nonetheless. Would recommend if you want to read something more serious and if you want to know more about how slaves were treated.