Twelve Years a Slave (review)

Abstract

66CIVIL WAR HISTORY not receiving a fuller measure of political and civü rights undoubtedly prompted a decline in zeal. Based extensively upon archival records and other documentary materials, the volume gives abundant evidence of thorough research. Occasionally, as in the treatment of the Battle of New Orleans, the author allows details of overall campaigns and battles to somewhat obscure the role of the Negro troops. Yet as a whole, this study is a worthwhile contribution to the history of Louisiana, the Negro , and the American militia. L. Moody Simms, Jr. Illinois State University Twelve Years a Slave. By Solomon Northrup. Edited by Sue Eakin and Joseph Logsdon. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1968. Pp. xxxvii, 273. $7.50.) In 1841, Solomon Northrup, a free Negro of Saratoga Springs, New York was deceived into accompanying two individuals to Washington, D.C. supposedly to find temporary employment as a musician in a circus company. To his horror, Northrup was drugged, thrown in a slave pen, whipped viciously, and sold to the New Orleans slave market. After twelve years of unremitting toü as a bondsman in Louisiana, a sympathetic Canadian communicated with Northrup's friends in the North and secured his freedom. From this remarkable story, David Wüson, a New York lawyer, collected Northrup's impressions and wrote a popular slave narrative , first published in 1853. More than just a personal adventure, the book is replete with perceptive observations on the environment of slavery in the Deep South. Northrup conveys the diversity of character he encountered in the plantation society; he does not depict all the slave proprietors as viUains, nor the slaves uniformly as heroes. His first master, a kind-hearted Baptist preacher, is described with affection, but Northrup refers to the brutal and drunken Master Epps with deep hostüity. With the overseers he is less discriminating, indicating that their requisite qualifications are "utter heartlessness , brutality and cruelty". It is the system, says Northrup, that makes many masters and overseers violent and indifferent to human suffering. Northrup portrays some slaves as obsequious and almost totally unaware of the meaning of freedom. "Brought up in fear and ignorance as they are", he says, "they wül cringe before a white man's look". But many slaves displayed strong, zealous personalities, described most vividly in the tragic case of Patsey, an ebullient, industrious girl whose spirit was broken by a brutal whipping. Some slaves became rebellious, planning escapes or insurrections (Northrup, himself, once flogged his overseer and fled into the swamps). Northrup leaves no doubt about the slaves' hidden feelings. If the white man could gain the Negro's confidence, says Northrup, he would learn that 99 percent of the bondsmen harbor an intense desire for freedom. Under pressure to duplicate the colorful prose style of Harriet Beecher Stowe, David Wüson wrote an embeUished narrative that sometimes appears stilted. He presents Northrup eloquently in the first person singular, using the plantation vernacular for other characters in the story. The editors have done a fine job supplementing the narrative with an interesting description of the trial of the kidnappers and numerous footnotes which attest to the accuracy of Northrup's account and provide background on the people and places mentioned in the book. Offering the balanced observations of an individual who entered bondage educated and aware of the benefits of freedom, the reissue of Twelve Years a Slave should be welcomed by students of American slavery. Robert Brent Toplin Denison University ...