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title = "12 Years a Slave - Solomon Northup"
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date = 2015-04-09
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[taxonomies]
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tags = ["books", "solomon northup", "reviews", "biography", "4 stars"]
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[GoodReads Summary](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18478222-twelve-years-a-slave):
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Twelve Years a Slave, sub-title: Narrative of Solomon Northup, citizen of
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New-York, kidnapped in Washington city in 1841, and rescued in 1853, from a
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cotton plantation near the Red River in Louisiana, is a memoir by Solomon
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Northup as told to and edited by David Wilson. It is a slave narrative of a
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black man who was born free in New York state but kidnapped in Washington,
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D.C., sold into slavery, and kept in bondage for 12 years in Louisiana. He
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provided details of slave markets in Washington, D.C. and New Orleans, as well
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as describing at length cotton and sugar cultivation on major plantations in
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Louisiana.
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<!-- more -->
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{{ stars(stars=4) }}
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I'll admit that I only bought this book for the morbid curiosity of how much
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flair the movie added.
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In my view, not so much.
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Sure, there are a few differences: Ford didn't sell Northup just because one
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fight with Tibeats, but because Ford had bills to pay; it wasn't a single
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fight with Tibeats, but three; the movie doesn't mention the Christmas days;
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the movie doesn't show Northup genius fish catcher; the movie doesn't show
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that, in the end, the guys who captured Northup actually tried to sue him
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back.
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But I believe the core of it was there. Which is impressive.
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The book doesn't only dwell in the his enslavement years, but also paint a bit
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of the historical production and live style of the US in the 1850s. The
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problem at those points is that it gives the false impression that everything
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is going alright with him at the time -- but after reading "Ghost Rider", I
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know people in distress tend to write books like everything is alright at some
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point. Still, it's weird to read such passages, like it was a matter-of-fact
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and now part of the life of someone who is not the owner of his own life
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anymore.
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Also, so parts are so incredible distressing, I had to stop and remind myself
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that this was *not* a fiction book, but actually the story of a man.
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