12 Years A Slave

       The book, "12 Years a Slave" is much like the trickery of modern day slavery. Soloman Northup is the narrator. It is based off his real life experiences of being a free man living in New York with his wife and children, to having his life completely flipped upside down by slave corporation. Northup describes the torturous ways of slave owners treat their slaves, including dozens of floggings, limited food, and unrealistically high expectations.
       When Soloman is first captured, he is completely taken off guard. Two nicely dressed men from the circus promised him the job, urging him to drop everything and come. The people were polite and cunning, and he believed he was doing his family a quick favor. After accepting a tainted drink in Washington D.C. and blacking out, Solomon woke up in chains.  He had been sold by the two gentlemen to a filthy dealer in the slave trade. He fought for his liberty, proving to them that he was an American with equality rights. But nothing could make the men budge, Soloman was there and that was that. What Soloman didn't realize was that this was only the beginning, this was heaven compared what he would be experiencing in the years to come. The cunning of the three men in illegally kidnapping a free black citizen resulted in financial profit for themselves, but a journey to hell for Solomon.
      Along his journey, a very relatable and painful incident  he witness was see a mother separated from her child. She was screaming and beseeching to the slave owners to let her son come with her wherever she went. Yet again, the men would not budge. Her son was left there alone, and you could hear the woman for minutes after the train had left.
       At one of r plantations he was at, Soloman escaped. Though dogs were chasing him and men were on horseback, he got away. He walked for miles on end, in scorching heat and no food. When he got to a plantation owner, Mr. ford, who he could also trust, he rested. Mr. Ford directed him to a plantation run by Epps. As it turned out, he was even worse, and an alcoholic as well. He scourged his slaves for practically anything. And when he came home drunk, he was brutally wild bad nonsensical.
        Over his many years, he watched a strikingly beautiful young slave woman, Patsie, stripped naked, pinned to the ground with stakes, and whipped mercilessly, with everyone watching, for walking to a neighbor’s farm to get a scrap of soap. He saw individual slaves weigh a personal harvest of picked cotton at the end of a 14 hour day, and if it was one ounce under on the scale—cruel whippings.
          The end of the book is very poignant, for Soloman does return home. He sees his family, his children so much older and stronger. His daughter is married and has a son in which she named after her father. Soloman tried to sue the men that kidnapped him, but didn't accomplish it. However, he helped many slaves escape from their plantations, becoming a major abolitionist.