Powerful. Very powerful and very sad. That is how I would describe the movie “12 Years a Slave”. I could not imagine having my freedom taken from me in one day. Solomon Northup was walking through the park and enjoying the day and then he met these two men. They asked Solomon to play the violin with them in a circus. He goes with them to D.C. and they have a good time drinking at the restaurant. You can tell the men are trying to get Solomon drunk because they keep filling his glass and they have an evil look in their eyes. Next thing Solomon knows he’s chained up and is being beaten. There are a lot of sad parts in this movie but the look of confusion in Solomon’s eyes really got to me.
From that point on it was crazy to see the survival mode Solomon, now called Platt, went into. On the boat, one of the other captured men wants to rebel and Solomon knows it wouldn’t work. That other slave ends up being killed on the boat. Platt is sold to man named Ford. Because Platt was free and educated he is a very valuable slave and Ford even gives him a violin. Platt at this plantation almost seems content and happy at times here because Ford is a nice owner. One of Ford’s overseers is a real jerk though and he doesn’t like Platt at all. The overseer makes the slaves clap as he sings a derogatory and demeaning song when they first are put to work. This overseer is jealous of Platt and makes him do more work and tries to get a reaction out of him.
Eventually Platt fights back when the overseer tries to beat him. In retaliation the overseer and his friends attempt to lynch Platt. They are stopped but Platt is left hung up with only the tips of his toes touching the ground. This scene in the movie is painful to watch because he hangs there for like a whole day and people just walk by and look at him and you can hear him struggling to breathe. Another slave does sneak him some water but that is it. After this Ford is forced to sell Platt to another plantation owner.
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Platt’s next owner is completely different from Ford. His name is Epps and he beats his slaves and rationalizes it with Bible verses, which I think is horrible and don’t understand how that makes sense in Epps head. On this plantation Platt has to pick cotton and he is not very good at it and is beaten when he does not get a certain amount. Another slave name Patsy is really good at picking cotton and Epps fancies her which makes his wife jealous. Patsy is victim of rape by Epps and beatings by Epps’s wife. After the cotton gets worms Platt goes to another plantation but eventually returns to Epps. Platt works on a shed with a white man named Bass and tells him he is a free man and asks him to help him. Solomon is eventually freed and reunited with his family.
I am so glad I watched this movie because you hear about these terrible things slaves went through but it is sometimes hard actually imagine it. Like in the movie where Solomon was forced to whip Patsy, the emotional and physical pain was horrifying. It seemed like anytime Solomon had anything good or any hope, like the kindness of Ford ortrying to send a letter to his family, it was taken from him and his hope was crushed. I think the saddest part of the whole thing is that there were thousands and thousands of slaves that would never be free. Solomon was one of few exceptions. The ending was kind of weird when he was reunited with his family. They seemed so foreign to him, which make sense being gone 12 years. I think it’d be interesting to see what his life was like after he got back. Did he mistrust white people more? Did he have nightmares in his sleep? This movie definitely made the story come alive.
