Reviews

Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup

elinorprodger's review against another edition

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dark informative slow-paced

4.0

lauraazz's review against another edition

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4.0

The story was amazing and as you can imagine, it is heartbreaking. It's written in a ways that makes it easy to read, almost like the one telling the story is in front of you, giving you details about something important that happened to him.

shelbyshelbxo's review against another edition

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5.0

In my opinion, this should be required reading for school students across America.
It is a horrifying and brutal firsthand account of a man’s experience being enslaved.

Solomon was born a free man in New York, but he was deceived and kidnapped, and then sold into slavery.

This memoir follows him through the 12 years he was enslaved, being sold to several different masters and having to work multiple plantations. He writes about the torture and abuse he endured, the nonstop work and labor expected of him, and the lives of the other slaves he came to know.

The book is so well written, Solomon was truly a gifted man. I’m grateful that this piece of work is published today for anyone to read.

With more and more discourse about slavery not being “that bad” or “exaggerated” circulating far right corners of the internet, we need to make sure that the horrors and true conditions of slavery are not glossed over and dismissed. We must make sure that we do not disconnect ourselves from America’s evil past. We have to learn about it, in its entirety, in order to understand systems in place today and racism- and also, to never repeat the past and to grow.

5 ⭐️

evlyn16's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced

4.0

vishal_moorthy's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

3.75

ashley_b22's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative sad medium-paced

jammythejamspreader's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

3.75

emilybelger's review against another edition

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informative reflective slow-paced

2.5

heathercottledillon's review against another edition

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4.0

It's hard to rate a book like this. On one hand, it is not enjoyable. Reading it made me feel outraged and depressed. On the other, it's a well-written story that must be told. Northrup was obviously very well-educated, and his memoir is much easier to read and to follow than some other books from the mid-1800s. I only wish he'd included more of his thoughts and feelings instead of simply describing the events. Still, I'm glad I read it, and I think we should read more first-person accounts of this horrible part of history to know what it was really like and not rely on our watered-down textbooks.

lit_laugh_luv's review against another edition

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3.0

A harrowing story that really gives insight into life for enslaved peoples, and does not shy away from the blunt truth. Growing up in Canada, our education system very much neglected acknowledging slavery in our country's history, and so it felt important for me to read this and better understand a lived experience (even if the events took place in America).

I hesitate in giving this 5 stars simply due to the structure of the book; I was really interested in some secondary characters but they weren't fully explored. Similarly, the ending felt a bit abrupt and I would have appreciated more of Solomon's perspective and emotions throughout. Some sections are a bit dense and feel academic, but that's likely due to the age of the book more than anything else.