Twelve Years a Slave Literary Elements

Memoir

1841-1853; first upstate New York, and then Louisiana

First-person narration by Solomon Northup.

Tone: bewildered, melancholy, desperate, gloomy, poignant, straightforward

Mood: mournful, dreary, solemn, confused

The protagonist is Solomon and the antagonists are the cruel slave traders/owners Solomon encounters during his time as a slave (Tibeats, Burch, Epps)

The major conflict is whether or not Solomon will be able to regain his freedom and return home to his family.

The story reaches its climax when Solomon is released from slavery.

1. The dark clouds Solomon mentions in the beginning of the story foreshadow that hardships he will have to endure.
2. Solomon says that visiting Canada was very useful to him in terms of achieving his freedom; he is foreshadowing his conversation with Bass.
3. Solomon notes that the $400 mortgage Ford took out on hand would become important later on, and indeed, it is what Chapin uses to prevent Tibeats from killing Solomon.

N/A.

1. One of the things alluded in the narrative is the idea that black people in America in that time had no power in court even though they were free men. This proves to be true when Solomon is not allowed to testify for himself in court.
2. Solomon and his wife occupy the Fort House, which was occupied by General Burgoyne, a British general, during the Revolutionary War (8).
3. The funeral procession of William Henry Harrison, the president elected in 1840 and who lived for only a month after he was inaugurated, is taking place when Solomon is in DC. (16).
4. Solomon makes several allusions to the Declaration of Independence in terms of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as well as "all men are created equal."
5. Solomon refers to Jonah and the whale, a biblical story, to demonstrate how he felt delivered from the swamp (96).

See separate Imagery section of this ClassicNote.

Despite the harsh treatment he is subjected to, Solomon does not criticize excessively his masters, no matter how cruel they are to him and to the other slaves. Instead, he argues that society made the slave owners cruel and that it is society’s fault that they behaved in such a way. This idea is paradoxical, considering how much Solomon suffered at the hands of the slave owners.

Solomon describes one of his masters, a man named Ford, with great fondness and love since he decided to treat his slaves humanely and to avoid beating them. Because of financial hardship, Solomon is given to another master and the life there is completely different from the live Solomon was used to with Ford. One day, Solomon dared to hit his master; from that day forward, the master only cared about killing the slave. Fortunately, Solomon escapes and reaches Ford once more. Ford draws a parallel between Solomon and Daniel, a Biblical character who was thrown into the lions’ pit but who survived because he was protected by God. What Ford wanted to highlight through this parallelism is the idea that slaves needed a miracle or something akin to a divine intervention if they wanted to survive and have a happy life.

N/A.

1. Solomon describes his fiddle “triumphing loudly when I was joyful, and uttering its soft, melodious consolations when I was sad" (143)
2. "It was enough to melt a heart of stone to listen to the pitiful expressions of that desolate and distracted mother" (28)
3. "It would have been a happy thing for most of us...had the compassionate sea snatched us that day from the clutches of remorseless men" (40)
4. "Many times, each day and night, the tolling bell set forth its melancholy voice..." (50)