Twelve Years A Slave Response Essay

The main purpose of this book is to ignite the civil war in the American history back in the 1800s. In the book, Northup from the North tells his life story as a free African American who after being kidnapped in 1841 was sold as a slave to the south, Washington, D. C and was set free in 1853. In his story, Northup also tries to mention other characters like Mr. Bass, Edwin Epps, William Ford, James H. , he was given the name ‘Platt’. The change of his name suggests that he lives as a confused person in her entire slavery lifespan in the South. In the book the author states that “man’s inhumanity to man” and he was working on an explanation of how the issue of slavery leads to human violence (19).

This is where Eakin identifies Epps as one of the known people in brutalizing the African American slaves compared to those who were rearing herds of cattle. Other individuals identified to have harsh to the slaves are; Hamptons, Brown, Burch and Tibeats. after being put into bondage for their authority, leadership and economy. Thus, in the book, it is possible to identify the inhumanity that was within the white Americans, especially because of putting the black Americans into captivity. Economic aspect is another part of the story that is associated with slavery by the book’s author. In the historical times, specifically in the 19th century, slaves were taken to the plantations for industrial revolution. Northup states in his story that slaves worked in the plantations to help in the improvement of the economy.