Twelve Years a Slave Lesson Plan

What creates tension in the lead-up to Northup’s deliverance?

In Northup’s journey, he has been threatened with death if he insisted on his true identity, and advised even by other enslaved people not to speak of it. We know by this point in the book that it is a great risk for anyone to help him, and an even greater risk for Northup to ask for help. Any attempt to help him could result in his death or an extreme punishment. Northup does a wonderful job of drawing out the moment. Despite the fact that the reader knows exactly how this story ends, we are anxiously awaiting the moment. In this sense, Northup has done an artful job of inviting the reader to empathize with him...