Twelve Years A Slave: Full Book and Comprehensive Reading Companion

by BookCaps, Solomon Northup

Twelve Years a Slave is the true story of a free man sold into slavery and kept in bondage for twelve years; though it is sometimes overlooked, it remains one of the most important true accounts of slavery ever written. This book is a companion to the influencial work.


This book contains a chapter by chapter analysis of the book, a summary of the plot, and a guide to major characters and themes. It does not contain the actual book.


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Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir

278 pages, Paperback

First published March 28, 2013

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Because of the Academy Award nominated movie based on this book, I think most everyone is acquainted with the story of 12 Years a Slave. It's the memoir written by Solomon Northup, a free black man who lived in New York state with his wife and three children. He was kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841 and was a slave for twelve years before he was rescued.

As one can imagine, Solomon's time as a slave was utterly horrible. Because of the media coverage of the movie, I expected the worst in terms of what Solomon and the other slaves went through and the truth of it was even worse than I could have ever imagined. Not every scene is intense and graphic - I don't want to discourage anyone from reading this book. It's an important book and should be read by everyone. There are some scenes that are to read though, I won't lie about that.

I was surprised by how accessible the language Solomon used was. I've read other books from the 19th century that were really hard to follow and understand (Dickens, anyone?) This book was very beautifully and descriptively written but I still was always able to follow what was happening. I bought this version of the book because I anticipated struggling with it but I would have been just fine with the regular book.

I haven't seen the movie yet so I can't draw any comparisons between the two but I still highly recommend this book to everyone.

[Mandy Fiddler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this book on Audible.The narration was pretty good, and the voice of the narrator was clear.

This story is about a gentleman who was a free man that was kidnapped and sold into slavery. The unfortunate part is that this really did happen in our nation's history, and I am very happy that books like this have been written so we do not forget the horrible suffering that they went through.

I would definitely recommend this book to students who are in school and adults who need a reminder of the type of society we do not want to be.

[Gail Bauser · Rating 5 out of 5]

No man or woman in this day and age doesn't know about the institution of slavery. But knowing isn't truly understanding. This book should be required reading for all high school students when they reach the study of slavery in history or social studies class.

This first hand account tells how a free man from the north could have been kidnapped and sold into slavery, why and how such a man would find himself bowing to the whims of such injustice, and what great lengths were necessary to procure his eventual freedom.

This first person narrative allows the reader to see what life as a slave was really like on a day to day basis... what it was like on the cotton field, in the cane fields, sleeping conditions, dietary conditions, and more. How an educated man can so fear for his life that he will bow his head and cast his eyes aside to the whims and needs of his "master" for 12 years is fully explained here.

Solomon Northup was, indeed, a fortunate man. (If you can call being kidnapped and sold into slavery fortunate). How he eventually came back to freedom from slavery is only one of the reasons you will want to read this book. You will learn about the slave trade itself. You will read of the ways the laws of the south were structured. And you will get a glimpse of the white plantation owner's distorted view of entitlement. At the end of this book, I was left with joy and relief for the deserved freedom of Solomon. But my heart was broken for the multitudes of others that suffered through such a terrible custom in our county's history.

I am thankful to Mr. Northup for taking the time and effort to recount his story. And I am thankful that the editor, David Wilson, took care to make sure the story came to us in Mr. Northup's own words. This book was written in 1853, and is as relevant today as it was then. This is definitely a book worth reading.

[Tom Darrow · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book does a good job at showing the savage and routine nature of slavery. He has some very vivid depictions of the slave markets, beatings and the nature of slave work like picking cotton and cutting sugarcane. Also, there are some peeks into the inner workings of slavery, like treatment by masters, escape attempts, slave catchers, etc.

Where this book lost me somewhat... 1) he concludes several of his chapters with lengthy rants about the nature of freedom. It's part of the style of mid-1800s writers, and he has more right than anyone to go off on those rants, but after reading several of them, they get a bit tedious.

The biggest flaw with this book is the edition I got. The BookCaps edition is extremely poorly edited. There are numerous typos (one or more per page). In some cases there are random punctuation marks in the middle of words, in other cases a word like "claim" is written as "daim". It's pretty obvious that they used some kind of scanning technology and it did a horrible job. Additionally, whenever the author quotes someone, it often doesn't have quotation marks before and/or after the quote, which makes it very hard to figure out who is talking, if it is a quote or not and where it starts and ends.

If the editing problems were fixed, I would have no problem giving this book one more star.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a savage book which cruelly illustrates the truth and ugliness of American slavery. It is bad enough for a person to be born into slavery but to be free, and stolen away from friends and family, is simply unconscionable. How Solomon Northup was able to bear his change in circumstances I couldn't possibly guess. His strength of character and resolve is to be admired.

As gruesome and heart wrenching as the story is, it is one of the most beautifully written books I've read in some time. The eloquence of writers from the 19th century is remarkable, and Mr. Northup is no exception. He was well educated, evident in his writing.

I was drawn to this story because of the recent movie release. I simply had to read the book first to get full story. I am glad I did as I can better appreciate the horrible struggle 'Platt' endured.

[Tb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I imagine the self defined "Christians" in his book ultimately depend on which side of the whip you are on.

[Bettie Thorne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a MUST READ