12 years a slave

Last night, I watched the movie 12 years a slave, because I have never seen it before, and I had some extra time on my hands. It was a good movie, but just the horrors that the African Americans had to go through before the abolishment of slavery. Man is cruel and greedy. He is unpredictable and dangerous. 

The plot of this remarkable true story was that a man named Solomon Northup was a free African American that lived with his family in New York. Betrayed, Solomon was drugged and woke up in chains. He was beaten when he tried to tell the two men, Brown and Hamilton who kidnapped him that he was a free man. He was sold to a man by the man by the name of Edwin Epps. Edwin Epps was a ruthless man. A man who rapes one of his slaves named Patsey. 

When Epps' Cotton crops were destroyed, he sent his slaves to a neighboring plantation for the season. While there, Northup gains the favor of the plantation's owner, Judge Turner, who allows him to play the violin at a neighbor's wedding anniversary celebration and was able to keep the money that Northup made. When Northup returns back to Epps' plantation, he uses the money to pay a white field hand and former overseer, Armsby, to mail a letter to his friends in New York. Armsby agrees and accepts Northup's saved money, but immediately betrays him to Epps. Afterwards, Northup mournfully burns the letter to prevent Edwin Epps from finding it. 

Then, Patsey is caught by Epps going to a neighboring plantation in order to acquire soap, as Mrs. Epps won't let her have any. In retaliation, Epps orders Northup to whip Patsey, which he had to oblige. But he never did it hard enough, so Patsey is then whipped brutally by Epps, to the point of near death. After the incident, Northup destroys his violin in a rage.

I'm not going to ruin the end, but I recommend it. It's a very powerful movie, and it shows the devastating act of what it would be like be an African American slave in the South. 

It was a terrible horror time; one of the worst time in American History. And even after the abolishment of slavery, there were still terrible violent events that happened to African Americans. Segregation, the 4 Little Girls where a baptist church was bombed and four little girls were killed in 1963, but there were so many other examples of the humility and violence against African Americans during the Civil Rights Era. 

"Slavery is man's greatest sin." - John Brown 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_Years_a_Slave_(film)