While Northup’s first-person account of his years as a slave makes for an unusual slave narrative (few slaves earned the freedom or possessed the opportunity to tell their stories as Northup did), McQueen and Ridley designed a less subjective style for their film. The film was lauded with critical and commercial acclaim, culminating with a Best Picture win at the Academy Awards. Upon its initial publication, his story came as enlightening to a society on the brink of a Civil War over slavery, but it fell out of print and favor until nearly a century later, when it was resurrected by historians Sue Eakin and Joseph Logsdon with historical annotations.ĭirector Steve McQueen and screenwriter John Ridley’s film of the same name provides an emotionally effective and technically proficient means of retelling the slave narrative. Northup’s memoir is framed entirely from his own first-person narration, supplemented by accounts of facts he gathered after gaining his freedom. 12 Years a Slave is based on the 1853 memoir of Solomon Northup, a free black man from Saratoga, New York who was kidnapped and then spent twelve years in the South as a slave in Bayou Bouef, Louisiana.
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