Twelve Years a Slave, Solomon Northup

“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
Patrick Henry

“Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.”
Frederick Douglas

“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.”
Abraham Lincoln

“You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.”
William Wilberforce

“Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.”
Abraham Lincoln

“Those who will not reason are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves.”
George Gordon Byron

Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.”
Henry David Thoreau

Twelve Years a Slave, is about Solomon Northup, who was born in 1808, kidnapped in 1841, rescued in 1853. After he wrote the book, he became an abolitionist, and died in 1853 at the age of 55.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS



1. Did you know anything about this person prior to reading this book? What
preconceived opinions did you have, and did these change after reading the book?

2. Was there something especially surprising about Solomon Northup's story? If so, what was it and why?

3. How does this book compare to Williams Styron’s “The Confessions of Nat Turner”?

4. As the master’s property and in the absence of Medicare, Social Security and 401K’s, in your opinion, what do you believe was the fate of the slaves that aged beyond their years of productivity?

5. Do you agree or disagree with the statement by Frederick Douglass on his view of religion and Christianity, and the role it played in the continuation of slavery?

“I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of the land. Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity. I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers, the boldest of all frauds, and the grossest of all libels. Never was there a clearer case of 'stealing the livery of the court of heaven to serve the devil in.' I am filled with unutterable loathing when I contemplate the religious pomp and show, together with the horrible inconsistencies, which every where surround me. We have men-stealers for ministers, women-whippers for missionaries, and cradle-plunderers for church members. The man who wields the blood-clotted cowskin during the week fills the pulpit on Sunday, and claims to be a minister of the meek and lowly Jesus.

The slave auctioneer’s bell and the church-going bell chime in with each other, and the bitter cries of the heart-broken slave are drowned in the religious shouts of his pious master. Revivals of religion and revivals in the slave-trade go hand in hand together. The slave prison and the church stand near each other. The clanking of fetters and the rattling of chains in the prison, and the pious psalm and solemn prayer in the church, may be heard at the same time. The dealers in the bodies and souls of men erect their stand in the presence of the pulpit, and they mutually help each other. The dealer gives his blood-stained gold to support the pulpit, and the pulpit, in return, covers his infernal business with the garb of Christianity. Here we have religion and robbery the allies of each other—devils dressed in angels’ robes, and hell presenting the semblance of paradise.”
― Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass