Slavery has existed for centuries. Even the bible has stories about slavery; for example, Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery and the ancient Egyptians enslaved the Israelites. It was a custom for the Hebrews to conquer people and make them slaves. Even the Romans enslaved the barbarians and Angles. 12 Year a Slave is about a man, Solomon Northup, who transitioned from powerful to powerless and is on a journey to gain back his freedom. Meanwhile, Princess by Jean Sasson, is about a Saudi Arabian girl who was born powerless and tries to change the way men dictate over women. Both starters show how gender and race is just an excuse to justify slavery. Even though that slavery is over, we are still trapped in the past.
Fortunately we now have our freedom, but on the other hand some people are not as fortunate as we are. Solomon Northup in 12 Years a Slave is one of the many people who got forced into slavery. He was a free man who got dragged into slavery and he had to face many hardships for years.Society has heard about slavery for many years and has anyone ever questioned, why didn’t the slaves fight back? The truth is some slaves did try to fight back. When Solomon got kidnapped, Burch who was part of the kidnapping try to get him to admit that he was a slave. He clearly stated that “I am Solomon Northup. I am a free man; a resident of Saratoga, New York. The residence also of my wife and children who are equally free. I have papers. You have no right whatsoever to detain me…” ( 12 Years a Slave).
Burch kept whipping him and said “Yah no free man. And yah ain’t from Saratoga. Yah from Georgia. Yah ain’t a free man. Yah nuthin’ but a Georgia runaway. Yah a runaway nigger from Georgia”. He beats him up so badly that Solomon surrenders. Even though he surrendered, he never gave up hope because this is a man that was taken away from his wife and children;it would be extremely difficult to give all of that up.
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As Solomon was getting transported to Georgia, he was with other slaves who were in the same predicament as him and one of the slaves mentioned to him that “Survival is not about certain death, it is about keeping your head down. If you wanna survive do and say as little possible tell no one who you really are and tell no one you can read and write unless you wanna be a dead nigga on the ship” (12 Years a Slave). Solomon reply was “Days ago I was with my family, in my home. Now you tell me all is lost. “Tell no one who I really am” if I want to survive. I don’t want to survive, I want to live”. Even though I have never been in this situation, I can understand both points of the argument; slaves didn’t always try to fight back because they felt powerless and hopeless.
In history, every time slaves tried to fight back it would end in tragedy. Nat Turner’s Rebellion is the perfect example of how slaves tried to fight back. He was an intelligent slave who led a bloody uprising in Southampton County, Virginia. He had visions which left him messages that ordered him to be free, which was the beginning of the uprising. In 1831 Turner and some slaves turned against their master and killed the whole family. He believed that he can only gain his freedom with force, which is why he turned to violence. There were about seventy slaves in that group and they moved from house to house killing off all the Caucasians.
Eventually, the group of slaves got caught and executed by the militia. Turner and in accomplices killed fifty whites but, in return some angry Caucasians killed about two hundred slaves, Turner’s Rebellion was obviously not a peaceful one and it wasn’t planned out very well either. Because of his actions, other people got hurt and since whites figured that he was intelligent, some states banned the act of teaching slaves how to read and write. Even though Turner’s Rebellion was a fail, it shows that slaves did try to fight back and there are many other slave rebellions. Killing off the Caucasians was Turner’s most grave mistake because from there on, everything can only go downhill.
As a matter of fact in history every tragic event that occurred had people always trying to fight for their freedom.Princess by Jean Sasson conveys the life of Saudi Arabian women; to men women are nothing more than useless property. One brave girl tries to break free from the control of men. Sultana has always been a rebel from birth, she refuses to let men control her life. Sultana mentioned that “at the age of seven I first became aware that I was a female who was shackled by males unburdened by consciences” (Jean Sasson98). She realizes that at a young age women didn’t really matter; there life are in the hands of men. In Saudi Arabia men decided how a women acts, dress, what they eat, who they marry, who they can talk to and spend time with and it never ends. Women are defined by how many sons they have because daughters were considered useless property. Men who had many sons was considered very lucky because then he would not be burdened with daughters.
It is safe to say that Sultana and all other Saudi women live in a prison. Men did not question their motives because they believed that “all women should be confined to the home…… women were the cause of all evil on earth” (Jean Sasson 85). Men actually thought that they were doing the right thing be keeping women confined, but women just feel enslaved and they want their freedom. This is ironic because History keeps repeating itself over and over again. Slavery was first introducedin 3000 BC;since then, history keeps repeating itself. 3000 BC is when slavery first arrives as a package of civilization. People would take their enemies and forced them into slavery and they didn’t care about justifying their actions because they didn’t think that they were doing anything wrong.
In addition in the year 500, the native are enslaved in England after the invasion of the Angelo Saxons and in 1000, slavery was a normal practice in England. The year 1526, Spanish explores imported African slaves to their settlement.No one in history ever question slavery until the 1700s. 1787 is when Britain introduced the society for the abolition of slave trade. There is a pattern here, people get captured or born into slavery, the slaves try to revolt which ends in some tragic story, and the slaves end up losing anyways and finally some people come to their senses and realize that what they have been doing was wrong all along. This is a reoccurring pattern throughout history.
In 12 Years a Slave, Solomon was unfortunately kidnapped and forced into slavery. He had everything stripped away from him, his wife, children, identity and everything he stands for is now gone. Just like many slaves in history, he refused to give up because he knew that if he was patient, he might be able to escape his cruel fate. He told himself that “I will not fall into despair! I will keep myself hardy until freedom is opportune!” (12 Years a Slave)
Solomon decides to obey his master and wait for an opportunity that will allow him to escape from that hell. After 12 long years, he was able to escape by putting his trust in others because he wouldn’t be able to gain his freedom without the help of others. Even though Solomon gained his freedom, slavery still existed. Solomon got forced into slavery, he fights back and manages to gain his freedom, but slavery still existed which is an example of history repeating itself. For example, the Cherokees owned over 4,000 African slaves and they didn’t volunteer for that position; like every other slave in history, the Africans were forced into slavery. The slaves came to the conclusion that the Cherokees were not better than them, so they decided to fight back. On November 15, 1842the slaves devised a plan that would help them gain their freedom.
Early in the morning while their masters were asleep, they woke up bright and early and confiscated the horses, guns, and supplies. They planned to head to Mexico which was a slave free place. When the Cherokees realized that the slaves were gone, they decided to pursue them and when they caught up to the slaves, both groups started firing at each other and the Cherokees retreated, but unfortunately the Cherokees decided to send the militia after the slaves and when the militia caught up to them, the slaves ran out of supplies and they were starving and weak so they couldn’t fight back. Some slaves were executed and others were forced into hard labor. What’s upsetting about this is that there are many more stories like these that end badly.
Unlike these slaves Solomon was able to gain his freedom but, he had help from his white friends. Even though Solomon was victorious in gaining his freedom, he could never get those twelveyears back and since slavery still existed, this was not a victory for the Africans, just like in 1842, but Solomon did manage to give some of them hope. Hope that they will one day be able to gain their free just like he did.
There is no doubt that people didn’t care about justifying their actionsbecause they actually believed that they were doing nothing wrong; “in the Christian era slavery as such was not condemned and churches and monasteries actually held slaves” (Justifications of Slavery). Abolition began during the 1700s, people who liked slavery decided to fight back with reason so they created excuses for themselves. In 12 Years a Slave the Christian slave owners tried to justify their actions with biblical words. Solomon’s second master, Edwin Epps read Luke 12:47, which says “And that servant which knew his Lord’s will… which knew his Lord’s will and prepared not himself… prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes…” D’ye hear that? “Stripes.” That nigger that don’t take care, that don’t obey his lord – that’s his master – d’ye see? – that ‘ere nigger shall be beaten with many stripes. Now, “many” signifies a great many.
Forty, a hundred, a hundred and fifty lashes… That’s Scripter!” (12 Years a Slave). Edwin Epps is one of many who uses the lord’s words in order to justify his action as a Christian slave owner. The problem is that the bible can be interpreted in many ways and sometimes people interpret the bible in ways that suit their way of living.Luke 12:47 is not meant to be taken literally, in this verse, God is talking about the reasonability to judgment which is a key component to knowledge and understanding. What I got from this verse is that “The more you know and understand, the more responsible to God you are for doing the right thing” (this is your bible).
It’s arguable that Edwin Epps could be right with his translation of the scripture because the scripture can be translated in many ways but, if that verse was true for the Whites, wouldn’t it also be true for Africans because we are all humansafter all. In this quote Edwin Epps mentions “That nigger that don’t take care, that don’t obey his lord – that’s his master…”, which is turn implies that he thinks of himself as a higher form of being which is not true because according to the bible all humans originated from the same being.
Edwin Epps had a small quarrel with Bass about slavery because Bass believes that slavery is wrong. Bass mentioned to Edwin that “the law says you have the right to hold a nigger, but begging the law’s pardon… it lies. Is everything right because the law allows it? Suppose they’d pass a law taking away your liberty and making you a slave… the law states that your liberties are undeniable? Because society deems it so? Laws change. Social systems crumble. Universal truths are constant. It is a fact, it is a plain fact that what is true and right is true and right for all. White and black alike”.Bass couldn’t be more right because people can’t just force others into slavery and deem it right. Slavery is wrong for every race, gender and culture; the justifications made are just excuses to make others feel like they are doing the right thing.
Just like in Princess when men thought they were doing that right thing, but it’s all a lie. Sultana’s sister Sarah was a very beautiful young lady her beauty makes any girl who looks at her jealous. To Sarah her beauty is a curse all she wanted was to live a peaceful life with a man who loved her. Sarah loves to learn and she is a very intelligent young lady but, her father believed that women didn’t need an education. Sarah’s father arranged for her to get married on her sixteenth birthday and she didn’t take the news so well. The groom was a sixty-two year old man and Sarah would be his third wife. Sarah protested to her father with tears streaming down her face but, unfortunately, her tears only harden his heart. During her downfall she sit out the words “Victory breeds hatred, for the conquered are unhappy” (pg.56). As a result, her wedding date was moved up; unfortunately for Sarah, she is a slave to men and she can’t change her fate because the rule of men are dominant.
“Victory breeds hatred…” is a powerful quote because there are many examples of this throughout history. Every war that has a victor also has a conqueror and nobody likes the feeling of being conquered because it’s humiliating, which in return breed hatred. Some slaves like Turner would go so far as to kill his master because of hatred. It takes a special kind of person to be able to forgive his/her victor. Slavery had destroyed people for many years; humans have done nothing but cause tragedies on others.
Slavery has split families’ apart, abuse people physically and mentally, force people into marriage, murder, suicide, etc….. After Sarah’s marriage, she unsuccessfully committed suicide because her husband was sadistic and she figured her only way was to end her life. Sarah’s mother could not stand the idea of losing her daughter so she convinced her husband to break Sarah’s marriage but, Sarah was never the same after that incident. Her father believed that Sarah did something to provoke her husband into acting like that because in Saudi Arabia, whenever a women is involved in a conflict, they are always the cause of the problem.
As a child whenever something bad or wrong occurred, many adults would say that, how feel if you were in that person’s shoes? At that time their words didn’t really affect me, but now people should really consider those words. At first not many people stopped to think about how the slaves may have felt because they only cared about themselves. How would they have liked it if the situation was reversed? Suppose that Joseph sold his brother into slavery, the Israelites enslaved the Egyptians, Africans enslaved the Caucasians or if women enslaved men?
Would that have made a difference? Definitely not because the gender and race does not matter, slavery will always be wrong because no one ever deserves so be treated to cruelly.
People try to justify slavery, but the truth is that, it’s not about the justifications, it’s more about power. Humans love the feeling of superiority because it makes them feel important, unstoppable; the fact that you can do whatever you want to a person and have them obey you gives others a sense of pleasure, which is why slavery was so appealing to people. People didn’t have to work in terrible hot conditions, they could just force that job on to others. Having a servant at your service for no pay at all was very appealing and the benefits of slavery blinded the judgment of others. People had to have known that slavery was wrong, but they just didn’t want to admit it because if they did admit that to themselves, they knew that they would have to give up their slaves. Slavery is only beneficial to the master so of course they wouldn’t want to think about their actions. There are no justifications to slavery because slavery is and always will be wrong.
