12 YEARS A SLAVE IS A STARK REMINDER OF THE BRUTALITY OF SLAVERY
Abolitionists gained momentum for their cause over the fate of Solomon Northup (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor), as described in 12 Years a Slave, directed by London-born Steve McQueen. (The facts are based on the book of the same title by David Wilson, published in 1854, which validated Harriet Beecher Stowe‘s account in Uncle Tom’s Cabin; but the book faded into obscurity until rediscovered by two Louisiana-based historians, who retraced the events and published an annotated version in 1968, whereupon the biography again was neglected until a TV film in 1984 and a revived book in 2012.) Northrup was born free in Mineva, New York, during 1808. At the time, many slaves were finding “underground railroads” to the North, so Southern bounty hunters went north to recapture them. In 1841, two persons posing as recruiters of circus performers spot violin-playing Northup living comfortably in Saratoga, offer him a job in Washington, DC, and transport him there. After he reaches the nation’s capital and falls asleep for the night, he wakes up in chains and is soon transported by boat to New Orleans for sale as a slave and given the name Platt. He quickly learns to keep his free status and literacy ability quiet, especially after being bought by a Mr. Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch) to work on a Louisiana sugarcane plantation. The hierarchy on the plantation is such that the white trash overseer bitterly resents his resourcefulness, so Ford sells him to Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender), a cotton farmer who is the quintessential Simon Lagree. Most of the brutality suffered by slaves, which occupies a considerable percentage of the 140-minute film, takes place on Epps’s plantation. For an unexplained reason, a Canadian abolitionist named Bass (Brad Pitt) helps Epps to oversee construction of a building. After revealing his plight to the Canadian, Northrup is freed with the intervention of an agent of the governor of New York, the very man who freed Solomon Northrup’s father many years earlier. The film ends when Northrup returns home to be greeted by a family which, over the past dozen years, has moved on. Titles at the end explain that Northrup unsuccesssfully tried to sue his kidnappers, gave talks about his experience in New England to support the abolitionist cause, and reportedly died sometime during the Civil War. The Political Film Society has nominated 12 Years a Slave for best film on human rights of 2013. MH