may 25, 1841 - 12 Years A Slave

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Summary: in 1841, Solomon North is a free black man who lives with his wife and kids in New York. One day he is drugged and transferred to the South where he is sold as a slave. For 12 years, Solomon had to withstand the torture and labor of being a slave.

Racism. Movie is set pre Civil War, so slavery in the South was legal. Solomon is unfairly brought and sold as a slave even though he is a free man. No white man believes or cares in his desperate attempts to convince them that he is free and has a family. While at the plantation, he is whipped, beat, hung, and starved. He is also forced to beat another female slave. He has faced much cruelty and struggled to survive. This movie is a terrifying and horrifically real look of what life was like for slaves during this time period. The audience can't help but feel bad and disgusted at the cruelty and violence that these human beings had to face. They had no rights and no hope for a better life. In one scene, the slave master tells Solomon to build the walls for this house. After tirelessly working on the house, the slave master criticized his work and tore it down, saying that it wasn't how he wanted it. Solomon mistakenly talked back to him, saying that the instructions were the problem and not him. This cause him to get badly beaten.

Quote: "If you want to survive, do and say as little as possible. Tell no one who you really are and tell no one that you can read and write. Unless you want to be a dead nigger." - Clemens

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