What Is The Theme Of 12 Years A Slave By Mcqueen
12 Years a Slave is a historical drama film directed by Steve McQueen based on the life of Solomon Northup and his memoir Twelve Years a Slave. The film was released on October 18, 2013, starring award-winning actors and actresses, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northup, Lupita Nyong’o as Patsey, Brad Pitt as Samuel Bass, and Benedict Cumberbatch as William Ford. McQueen received near-universal praise by audiences and critics for McQueen’s directing, the acting, and the dedication to depicting Solomon Northup’s story. McQueen received several awards for the film, including Academy Award for Best Picture, 3 Oscars, Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture, and the BET Award for Best Movie. The budget for the movie was an estimated $20,000,000,
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grossing about $923,715 the opening weekend. 12 Years a Slave recounts the life of Solomon Northup, a free black man in the North who is kidnapped and sold into slavery in pre-Civil War South. Born July 10, 1807, to an emancipated father, Northup grew up in what is now Minerva. Northup received education and worked on his family farm. In 1828, Northup married Anne Hampton, the couple later sold the farm and moved to Saratoga Springs, New York, where they worked to support their three children, Elizabeth, Margaret, and Alonzo. On March 1841, Solomon was walking about the village when two men approached him. They addressed themselves as Merril Brown and Abram Hamilton, although it is not known who they really were. They told him they had heard that he was an exceptional violinist, and were in need of a musician and offered him money for his service. Solomon accepted their offer and left. They traveled and played one show.
Drugged and taken a hostage, Northup wakes up disoriented and chained in the Red Region of Louisiana and addressed as Platt Hamilton. Over the next 12 years, Northup served as human property to several slave owners. For the majority of his bondage, Northup serves as a slave to the cruel master Edwin Epps and his wife Mary Epps. In 1853, Solomon Northup is finally freed and returned home to his wife and children. The practice of slavery is as old as time. All people of every culture have been enslaved. It is found in every civilization, including Ancient Greece, Rome, and Ancient Egypt. In the early seventeenth century, a Dutch ship was loaded with African Americans and shipped to the North American colony of Jamestown, Virginia. The slaves were sold to the colony to provide labor for tobacco, the most lucrative cash crop. The transition from white indentured servants to black slaves began. The amount of slaves in Jamestown remained relatively small until late in the century. Colonial leaders made a great effort to increase their control over the segment of slavery and in 1660 the House of Burgesses passed an act allowing African laborers to be enslaved. In 1664 Maryland followed the suit, and the slow, unsteady march to full-blown racial slavery had begun. The Virginia Assembly passed a series of laws that made slavery a status inherited maternally and granted masters the right to kill slaves who resisted their authority.
Slaves labored under harsh conditions, and the punishments for even the slightest could be severe. Punishments such as having holes bored in their tongues for complaining against their masters; they were whipped, beaten, and branded for a variety of offenses. By the early eighteenth century systems of labor such as indentured or servitude, began to decline and white servants were gradually replaced with black ones. Southern whites were in constant fear of resistance and rebellion amid the blacks, and as more slaves were imported from Africa, the fear and reality of rebellion increased.
In 1793, inventor Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, the machine that ensured a steady supply of cotton that eased the labor of deseeding short-staple cotton. The cotton gin could clean as much cotton fiber in one hour as several laborers could in one day. The invention of the cotton gin expanded slavery into the interior of southern states as well as well as into the lower. In the late 1700s there were less than 700,000 slaves in the United States, by 1820 there were nearly 1.5 million.
Southern planters relied on the growing demands from northern merchants and manufacturers; slavery spread into the interior of several southern states as well as the lower Mississippi valley.
Although cotton was not the only crop produced in the South-fortunes were made on sugar and rice in Louisiana and South Carolina-it quickly became the most important. With the aid of the cotton gin, the South produced more than 330,000 bales annually by 1820. The dramatic increase of cotton planted and harvested each year was followed by a jump in the size of the slave population. The international slave trade ended in 1808 but southern planters greatly increased the number of slaves they had as the need for planting and picking …show more content…
grew.
The labor of enslaved Africans drove the South’s economy as well as the nation’s. In 1820 the South had produced about 500,000 bales of cotton, within 10 years cotton accounted for almost two-thirds of the U.S export and trade, adding nearly $200 million a year to the American economy. As the population of blacks grew, the fear of rebellion grew along with it. This fear led to stricter regulations of black life. The South needed to expand west for soil depletion caused them to need fresh soil to grow more cotton and they feared the rising number of the slave population. The North did not want any blacks in the west, laws were passed to prevent the expansion in certain states.
In the North, people wanted nothing to do with slavery and between 1774 and 1804, Northern states abolished slavery. A movement to abolish slavery in America began to strengthen in northern United States from the 1830s to 1860s. Free blacks and other abolitionists began to help slaves escape from southern plantations, the practice that became known as the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad began to spread abolitionist feelings in the North, causing tension between the South and North. The abolition movement began to divide the country between the North and South.
Tensions escalated across the nation as Republican Abraham Lincoln won office in 1860. This election caused the Lower South to secede and further isolated themselves from the nation and establish the Confederate States of America. By the time Lincoln took office in spring of 1861, America had already come face to face with civil war. Action was taken immediately as the South would stop at nothing to ensure slavery was permanent. Upper Southerners hoped that with Lincoln’s election, a compromise would be met while Northerners believed secessionists should be punished. Lincoln, on the other hand, would do whatever it took to keep the country united.
Over the next four years, America would be divided in the bloody, horrific war known as the American Civil War. The war was the largest and most destructive conflict in the West, thousands of soldiers died, fighting for what they believed right, never to return home. In the spring of 1865, the North won its victory and preserved the United States of America as one nation and ended the institution of slavery that had divided the country.
Solomon Northup was among the many free blacks who were kidnapped and sold into slavery, a reverse Underground Railroad.
The population of free slaves began to increase after the American Revolution, making free blacks easy prey for kidnappers. Once kidnapped, it was nearly impossible to regain your freedom. Freedom papers were destroyed and on the rare occasion that the papers were taken to court, the judge would dismiss them as forged. Northup was one of the few victims of the crime to regain freedom from slavery, having been rescued from a friend in New York.
The movie 12 Years a Slave does a tremendous job on the 1853 autobiography ‘12 Years a Slave’. The actor portraying Northup, Chiwetel Ejiofor, does an exceptional job, making you feel as if the man is Solomon himself. The movie closely followed the events in the book, from the scars on Northup’s face to the accurate display of the horrid Master Epps. The movie feels so authentic that you do not feel the need to make sure the information is correct. But of course, the movie had a few details were altered and simplified to fit the
film.
In the film we see Northup loaded on a slave ship along with two other slaves, Arthur and Robert. In the movie Robert dies from being stabbed after he tries to stop a sailor from raping Eliza, a female slave. In real life, Robert dies from smallpox, Northup contracts the disease as well and is left with a scar on his face which the movie displays. This event was probably added to create drama to the plot. Solomon had three children, Elizabeth, Margaret, and Alonzo Northup, but in the film, only Margaret and Alonzo are portrayed while Elizabeth was omitted.
Patsey, an enslaved African American woman who works for Master Epps, befriends Northup. Patsey was often raped and violated by Master Epps who favored her but did not give her any special treatment. Patsey was caught between a possessive master and a jealous mistress who would often beg Master Epps to sell her. In the film, there is a pivotal scene where Patsey begs Northup to kill her, but on the contrary, it was Mistress Epps who begs Solomon to kill Patsey. In his memoir, Northup describes Patsey as one who is inspired to live life with the hope that she will one day be free; in the movie, Patsey is portrayed to be so stricken with despair that she wants Solomon to end her misery.
grossing about $923,715 the opening weekend. 12 Years a Slave recounts the life of Solomon Northup, a free black man in the North who is kidnapped and sold into slavery in pre-Civil War South. Born July 10, 1807, to an emancipated father, Northup grew up in what is now Minerva. Northup received education and worked on his family farm. In 1828, Northup married Anne Hampton, the couple later sold the farm and moved to Saratoga Springs, New York, where they worked to support their three children, Elizabeth, Margaret, and Alonzo. On March 1841, Solomon was walking about the village when two men approached him. They addressed themselves as Merril Brown and Abram Hamilton, although it is not known who they really were. They told him they had heard that he was an exceptional violinist, and were in need of a musician and offered him money for his service. Solomon accepted their offer and left. They traveled and played one show.
Drugged and taken a hostage, Northup wakes up disoriented and chained in the Red Region of Louisiana and addressed as Platt Hamilton. Over the next 12 years, Northup served as human property to several slave owners. For the majority of his bondage, Northup serves as a slave to the cruel master Edwin Epps and his wife Mary Epps. In 1853, Solomon Northup is finally freed and returned home to his wife and children. The practice of slavery is as old as time. All people of every culture have been enslaved. It is found in every civilization, including Ancient Greece, Rome, and Ancient Egypt. In the early seventeenth century, a Dutch ship was loaded with African Americans and shipped to the North American colony of Jamestown, Virginia. The slaves were sold to the colony to provide labor for tobacco, the most lucrative cash crop. The transition from white indentured servants to black slaves began. The amount of slaves in Jamestown remained relatively small until late in the century. Colonial leaders made a great effort to increase their control over the segment of slavery and in 1660 the House of Burgesses passed an act allowing African laborers to be enslaved. In 1664 Maryland followed the suit, and the slow, unsteady march to full-blown racial slavery had begun. The Virginia Assembly passed a series of laws that made slavery a status inherited maternally and granted masters the right to kill slaves who resisted their authority.
Slaves labored under harsh conditions, and the punishments for even the slightest could be severe. Punishments such as having holes bored in their tongues for complaining against their masters; they were whipped, beaten, and branded for a variety of offenses. By the early eighteenth century systems of labor such as indentured or servitude, began to decline and white servants were gradually replaced with black ones. Southern whites were in constant fear of resistance and rebellion amid the blacks, and as more slaves were imported from Africa, the fear and reality of rebellion increased.
In 1793, inventor Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, the machine that ensured a steady supply of cotton that eased the labor of deseeding short-staple cotton. The cotton gin could clean as much cotton fiber in one hour as several laborers could in one day. The invention of the cotton gin expanded slavery into the interior of southern states as well as well as into the lower. In the late 1700s there were less than 700,000 slaves in the United States, by 1820 there were nearly 1.5 million.
Southern planters relied on the growing demands from northern merchants and manufacturers; slavery spread into the interior of several southern states as well as the lower Mississippi valley.
Although cotton was not the only crop produced in the South-fortunes were made on sugar and rice in Louisiana and South Carolina-it quickly became the most important. With the aid of the cotton gin, the South produced more than 330,000 bales annually by 1820. The dramatic increase of cotton planted and harvested each year was followed by a jump in the size of the slave population. The international slave trade ended in 1808 but southern planters greatly increased the number of slaves they had as the need for planting and picking …show more content…
grew.
The labor of enslaved Africans drove the South’s economy as well as the nation’s. In 1820 the South had produced about 500,000 bales of cotton, within 10 years cotton accounted for almost two-thirds of the U.S export and trade, adding nearly $200 million a year to the American economy. As the population of blacks grew, the fear of rebellion grew along with it. This fear led to stricter regulations of black life. The South needed to expand west for soil depletion caused them to need fresh soil to grow more cotton and they feared the rising number of the slave population. The North did not want any blacks in the west, laws were passed to prevent the expansion in certain states.
In the North, people wanted nothing to do with slavery and between 1774 and 1804, Northern states abolished slavery. A movement to abolish slavery in America began to strengthen in northern United States from the 1830s to 1860s. Free blacks and other abolitionists began to help slaves escape from southern plantations, the practice that became known as the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad began to spread abolitionist feelings in the North, causing tension between the South and North. The abolition movement began to divide the country between the North and South.
Tensions escalated across the nation as Republican Abraham Lincoln won office in 1860. This election caused the Lower South to secede and further isolated themselves from the nation and establish the Confederate States of America. By the time Lincoln took office in spring of 1861, America had already come face to face with civil war. Action was taken immediately as the South would stop at nothing to ensure slavery was permanent. Upper Southerners hoped that with Lincoln’s election, a compromise would be met while Northerners believed secessionists should be punished. Lincoln, on the other hand, would do whatever it took to keep the country united.
Over the next four years, America would be divided in the bloody, horrific war known as the American Civil War. The war was the largest and most destructive conflict in the West, thousands of soldiers died, fighting for what they believed right, never to return home. In the spring of 1865, the North won its victory and preserved the United States of America as one nation and ended the institution of slavery that had divided the country.
Solomon Northup was among the many free blacks who were kidnapped and sold into slavery, a reverse Underground Railroad.
The population of free slaves began to increase after the American Revolution, making free blacks easy prey for kidnappers. Once kidnapped, it was nearly impossible to regain your freedom. Freedom papers were destroyed and on the rare occasion that the papers were taken to court, the judge would dismiss them as forged. Northup was one of the few victims of the crime to regain freedom from slavery, having been rescued from a friend in New York.
The movie 12 Years a Slave does a tremendous job on the 1853 autobiography ‘12 Years a Slave’. The actor portraying Northup, Chiwetel Ejiofor, does an exceptional job, making you feel as if the man is Solomon himself. The movie closely followed the events in the book, from the scars on Northup’s face to the accurate display of the horrid Master Epps. The movie feels so authentic that you do not feel the need to make sure the information is correct. But of course, the movie had a few details were altered and simplified to fit the
film.
In the film we see Northup loaded on a slave ship along with two other slaves, Arthur and Robert. In the movie Robert dies from being stabbed after he tries to stop a sailor from raping Eliza, a female slave. In real life, Robert dies from smallpox, Northup contracts the disease as well and is left with a scar on his face which the movie displays. This event was probably added to create drama to the plot. Solomon had three children, Elizabeth, Margaret, and Alonzo Northup, but in the film, only Margaret and Alonzo are portrayed while Elizabeth was omitted.
Patsey, an enslaved African American woman who works for Master Epps, befriends Northup. Patsey was often raped and violated by Master Epps who favored her but did not give her any special treatment. Patsey was caught between a possessive master and a jealous mistress who would often beg Master Epps to sell her. In the film, there is a pivotal scene where Patsey begs Northup to kill her, but on the contrary, it was Mistress Epps who begs Solomon to kill Patsey. In his memoir, Northup describes Patsey as one who is inspired to live life with the hope that she will one day be free; in the movie, Patsey is portrayed to be so stricken with despair that she wants Solomon to end her misery.