The Film 12 Years a Slave

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The film 12 Years A Slave, based off of the memoir by Solomon Northup; a free black man from New York born July 10th 1807 who was kidnapped, is an interesting film with some historical inaccuracies, but also some very historically accurate events and issues that took place during this time in American History. The key points to be covered and examined in this paper will be: how historically accurate is the film actually is, why if any events may have been changed or embellished, how have the filmmakers' inclusions and exclusions shaped their own personal account of history, how well the film places events into a broader context, and if the film actually succeeds in capturing historical truth. The film begins in Saratoga New York in the year 1841. Solomon Northup, a free black man is approached by two men, Joseph Russell and Alexander Merrill who claim they are seeking Solomon for his skills with the violin to play in their circus for two weeks. This ends up with Solomon being abducted and sold into slavery. This part of the film, according to Solomon’s memoir is accurate.2 In a broader context, the idea that during this time free black men were being abducted and sold into slavery from Northern slave free states and transferred to the South into slave states, is true indeed.1 During this time, free men were warned about mischievous behavior from even police officers and to be extremely careful if outside as kidnappings and abductions were known to be going on in Northern states during this time. Posters and flyers even had to be made to get the message out of these horrible crimes taking place. During the film, Solomon and other slaves are punished severely for disobeying or not working hard enough, as well as moved or sold from one slave owner’s plantation to the next for various reasons such as a falling out with an overseer, diseased crops, or simply the
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