NAME: FERNANDEZ, MARIA ELISABETH

SEMIPRESENCIAL
DATE: SEPTEMBER 8TH
THEME: Twelve Years a Slave

Study guide
1) Although born in the North as a free man in the 19th century, how is Solomon Northup “seasoned”
into slavery?
He is tricked into going to Washington for a gig and instead is drugged, kidnapped, and put into a slave pen
and then shipped to Louisiana.

2) What makes William Ford a “model master” in Northup’s opinion? What distinguishes a “good”
master from a “bad” one? In your opinion, can a good slave owner even exist?

In his opinion, William is a “model master” because he unlike other masters, he doesn´t flog his slaves for no
reason and instead rewards slaves who are dedicated to working hard. A good master was a slave owner like
William Ford who was kind and rarely times beat his slaves and was also very understanding and forgiving in
contrast to a bad master like Edward Epps who used to beat his slaves even when they did what they were told
and even beaten them only to satisfy his desires to do that.

3) How is the Bible used by a slave owner in the story? What does He say and how?

Is used to justify slavery and the way they have to be treated, for example in one case Epps quotes Luke
12:47 to his slaves: “And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did
according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.” He then shuts the Bible and says, “That’s scripture.”
Epps takes this verse literally and whips the slaves who pick the least amount of cotton each day. When he has
a good harvest, Epps attributes it to “righteous living”; when the crops die, he claims it must be a “biblical
plague” brought on by his slaves’ unrighteousness.

4) How do changes in ownership affect Northup’s work and living conditions?

It get worse when he was traded from Ford to Epps. He was beaten for no reason at several times.

5) What´s the importance of Canada as a slave-free country in the story? What can you say about its
importance?
The importance is that in Canada, there was no slavery and all man have the same rights there.

6) What chances did enslaved African Americans near Northup have of obtaining permanent freedom
through revolt or escape? What factors work in their favour? What factors work against them?
The chances that enslaved African-Americans had of obtaining permanent freedom through revolt or escape
were rare, Solomon Northrup has a chance to escape when Mrs. Epps tell him that he has to get some things
for her from the general store; he has the chance to escape and run off.
On the way to the store, he sees two slaves being hung, and suddenly he is paralyzed with fear and too scared
to run away. Therefore, he just completes his chore.
Some of the factors work in the favour of slaves in their attempt to escape are their imagination and their time
to think. For example in the film Solomon Northrup really only has the job of picking cotton and while it is a
tough job it leaves a lot of space to think of other things while working, so while a slave is working he can be
thinking about ways to escape and revolt against their owner.
Some of the factors that work against slaves trying to escape are they have trust issues.
For example, when Solomon Northrup gives Armsby his letter and payment to send this letter up north,
Armsby betrays him and tell Mr. Epps that Solomon Northrup is attempting to escape, when a slave is being
betrayed he gives up some hope on escaping or revolting against his master, thus loyalty works against him.

7) In one of the last chapters, the narrator mentions a war against Mexico being taking place. What are
the comments about such issue and how is the feeling of “hope” seen?

8) What role did violence and name-calling play in the maintenance of the slave society Northup
enters? What forms did this violence take?

Violence takes an important place in the story. Some forms of violence that takes place are whipping, beating,
and hanging.
Sometimes slaves were beaten unnecessary, when Solomon was working under Mr. Ford, Tibeats tried to beat
Solomon but Solomon quickly took his belt away from him and started whipping Tibeats with it. During
Tibeats' beating, he kept apologizing to Solomon but as soon as Solomon stopped beating him, he
immediately threatened to murder him with whatever it takes.
The next day, Tibeats and his men in which they hung him until he had almost died dragged Solomon. It was
not until a worker came to his rescue and informed Tibeats that he could not kill Solomon for he did not pay
for him.
When Solomon was working under Mr. Epps, he was given an order to retrieve Patsey who had ran away. The
reason for her disappearance was because she went to get a tiny bar of soap from Mistress Epps. From
working in the sun all day and feeling filthy, the least she wanted was to feel sort of clean. Because of the
sudden runaway, Mr. Epps was extremely furious and instructed Solomon to whip Patsey but he did not have
the heart to so Mr. Epps decided to do it on his own.
Many of these violent actions take place due to the other party not being able to control their fury and that is
how they take out their anger.
9) How does the skill with the fiddle benefit the narrator’s life and/or how detrimental is
it for his welfare?

10) What is the paradox of an existing slave pen next to the Capitol?
The irony about Washington DC is that it is the Capitol of a country whose laws were based on people's right
to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, yet there is a slave pen there in which nobody is free.

11) Through his narration, what distinctive characteristics are observed in Solomon as a
slave?
He could read and write, also play the violin as well as swim.

12) Describe Northup's attitudes towards the various slave owners he encountered in
Louisiana. Did he see them all the same way or did he make distinctions?

In fact he made distinctions for example:

13) How does Solomon describe young Master Epps on pages 201-202? What does he
wish his readers to learn about the impact of slavery on southern whites?

14) Read pages 204-10. Compare Bass's attitudes on slavery with those of Epps. In one
sense, these men may be viewed as representative of northern and southern opinions.
Did the two have anything in common?

BASS EPPS
Didn´t approve slave owning Approve slave owning
He though and believe in rights for equal no matter He believed that black man didn´t have rights
the colour of the skin
They have the right to learn basic skill such as read They have to work not to learn basic skills such as
and write read and write
They don´t deserve punishments They deserve punishment and several horrors if they
don´t do what the master told to

They don´t have anything in common, perhaps in the way that the north strongly believe that slaves deserve
to live in inhuman conditions while in the south they work and have human conditions of living.

15) Northup mentions slave drivers several times. Who were they? What did they do?
Why did they do it?
They were people, white ones who kidnapped black people to turn them into slaves by selling them and
hunting them if they scape. They must be cruel, brutal, and heartless.