Enrique Franco Scherer

A01371829
ITESM CEM
tica, profesin y ciudadana

12 Years a Slave
12 Years a Slave is a movie based on the book with the same name by Solomon
Northup, where Solomon, a free man born in New York, is drugged and sold to slavers
in Washington, after this he is transported to Louisiana where he is sold to a plantation
owner called Ford. Conflicts arise between Solomon and some of Fords men, so he is
sold to Mr. Epps who has a cotton plantation. After many years of serving Epps and one
failed attempt of contacting his family in New York Solomon meets Mr. Bass, a
Canadian laborer who has strong ideas against slavery. Solomon asks for Basss help
in order to locate his family and friends back in New York. Bass contacts them and later
he is located by Mr. Parker, a former friend, and the sheriff of town, he is recognized by
the sheriff as a free man and is transported back to New York with his family and back
to freedom.

The movie is set in a period of time before the American Civil war where slavery was
allowed by law in some states of the United States, the story of Solomon is shared by
many black people who had the same tragic fate, not many of them got their freedom
back. Slavery was very practiced particularly in the southern states, and it had been
legal since the British started colonizing North America, so it was considered normal
amongst many. Yet many others believed it was a crime and a sin, and condemned it,
this happened mostly in the northern states and Canada.

The story of Solomon is very contrasting, at first, he is a born free man, he has a family
and lives well off working as a violinist. Then everything changes when he is abducted
and treated as a slave, he no longer is the same person he was and his attitude towards
life begins to change, he starts to lose hope and never reveals his true identity, yet he
never fully subdues and become a submissive slave.
His first master Mr. Ford was a man with good-feelings he is aware that slavery is bad
and that black people are also persons with feelings and talents, yet he does nothing to
stop it, to the contrary he encourages it by owning a considerable large slave work
force. The case of Mr. Ford and all slave owners is similar, they have been rich since
birth and had servant slaves all their lives, and so did their parents before them. They
consider slaves their property because that is a right they have by law so everything is
as it should be. It is also noted that some of them give bad treatment to their white
workers too and do not share wealth equally. They are too comfortable living a life of
wealth with servants, so they do not want to change and give up their slaves (this
eventually led to the American Civil War). By contrast Mr. Epps has a bad temper and is
an alcoholic, he also treats his slaves as if they were lesser humans and has little to no
empathy for them.

I find impressive that Solomon being in the same country, lives a very different life, he
was trapped in the South with no possibility of escaping. Thankfully Mr. Bass appears in
his life, as a Canadian Bass has a different view of the world, he acknowledges slavery
but he thinks it is wrong, that all men are equal in the eyes of god and slavery should be
prohibited. He was not rich and probably never had any slaves and thats why his
perspective is so different.

We can compare this to present time where multinational corporates like H&M, Apple,
Disney and Walmart amongst many others, favor bad practices such as child labor,
underpaying their employees, sweatshop labor, and many other dangerous and socially
unacceptable practices. This can be considered modern slavery, there is no law being
broken most of the time, yet the people that work there have a 12-hour job with very
little pay and with very low quality of life. A lot of people have denounced these
practices and many businesses have changed this, yet many others will continue doing
the same thing as long as it is possible and profitable for them. Arguably they are no
different than the slave owners 200 years ago.

Sources:

McQueen S. (Director), Pitt B. McQueen S. (Producers) (2013). 12 Years a Slave

[Motion Picture] International: Lionsgate