Conditions of Slavery

Conditions of Slavery

The 2013 movie of Twelve Years a Slave directed by Steve McQueen presents a very graphic insight of the conditions of slavery by showing how it really was in the 1800s. The life of a slave is not hown in a positive light as it shows how tough it really was for them, in that they constantly have to obey their master and failure to do so meant that they would get tortured. Slavery was maintained by the fear of punishment, mainly whipping. “Slave codes” regulated slave behaviour. During Solomon’s 12 years as a slave the main form of torture that was used was whipping the slaves back until the skin was completely ripped and torn open. Other forms of torture such as rape and getting hung is also prevalent in the story.

 

On a trip to Washington DC the kidnappers take advantage of Solomon by getting him so drunk that he became unconscious in order for them to easily beat him up and chain his wrist and ankles.  When Solomon regained consciousness he awoke in darkness all alone chained up.  The slave trader comes in, in which Solomon protests how he is a “free man”, which the slave trader tells Solomon that he is a runaway from Georgia, “a runaway nigger”. This results in Solomon being whipped for the first time, because he did not admit that he was a slave, consequently he gets punished. Steve McQueen focuses the camera shots on the whipping scene for over one minute in order for the audience to feel the pain alongside Solomon. McQueen also uses a pounding soundtrack to emphasise the beating.  Solomon protested throughout the film how he was “a free man” and due to this he got beat up, “my back is thick with scars from protesting my freedom”. He does not want to accept that he is now a slave.

Solomon is then stuffed onto the back of a cart with very little room along with the other slaves. They were all chained around the wrists and ankles to restrict movement throughout the journey to Louisiana, as well as to minimise the chance of escape. Solomon meets Eliza who was also on the cart and was sold along with him. She had just been separated from her children and is very distressed. This is an example where the slaves are not treated humanely as they were often separated from offspring, even after begging for them not to be separated.

Question: Do you think the film shows an accurate depiction of the conditions the slaves had to endure?

The living conditions of the slaves at William Fords plantation were kept to the bare minimum. They were given a basic chair and table, with no comfortable furniture and no bed so they had to sleep on the floor. Their food portions were very minimal, they had barely enough to maintain strength, a healthy body weight and ultimately survival. They had just enough to stay alive. The slaves are often dehumanised and treated very poorly without basic human rights. The slaves had to endure hard labour, with long hours and no rest. This can be clearly seen in the cotton fields scene. For some slave’s life was more brutal depending on their master. For Solomon, Ford was fairly decent to his slaves as opposed to Epps.

John Tibeats role was to ensure that the slaves were obedient and did their job but most importantly were alive. He used any opportunity he could to mistreat Solomon. He tormented the slaves whilst they were working by singing ‘run nigger run’ like a cursed nursery rhyme to put the slaves in place. Further on in the film the slaves sing songs together whilst picking cotton as a way to pass time and let them escape into song.

There is a big divide between the notion of slavery in the north of the United States and the south in the way Solomon feels and is treated. He quickly notices a vast difference compared to his old lifestyle in New York and his life now in Louisiana. Solomon sees the North as sources of comfort, luxuries of entertainment, clothing and being treated like an equal. He was a free man. In Saratoga, New York Solomon had various occupations including being a very good violinist. The violin was a source of comfort throughout Solomon’s time as a slave, by giving him a familiar thing he loves. It helped take his mind off being a slave; he gets so involved in his music he leaves all his bad thoughts behind. In the scene where Solomon is being made to play the violin, the other slaves are forced to dance for the white people’s entertainment, and if they weren’t doing a good enough job they were to get whipped. So in that sense Solomon was lucky he had musical talent otherwise he could have been abused even more.

There are considerable differences between how black slaves were treated compared to white slaves. The black Africans were all placed together in a cramp room whilst the white slave is given his own room. The black slaves were treated a lot harsher than white slave and you don’t see the white slave getting whipped at all. The only incident in the film where you see a white man getting beaten up is when Solomon takes the whip from Tibeats and starts beating him up. Solomon sees this as revenge against all the slave owners who have ever abused him. Throughout the film it is noticeable that the white slave owners are sometimes scared of the slaves as they feel that one day they can easily retaliate back due to the amount of abuse they are given.

The female slave Patsey at Epps cotton plantation had a remarkable skill for picking cotton and was the best one there. However, she was one of the most severely beaten slaves, because Mistress Epps encouraged her husband Edwin Epps to whip her. However, he first refused as he doesn’t want to harm her due to their intimate relationship. Therefore, he forces Solomon to whip Patsey, which he is very reluctant to. After Solomon had pleaded and reluctantly whipped Patsey more than forty times he threw down the whip and refused to go any further. Epps screams at Solomon “I will kill every nigger in my sight, strike her, strike her!”.  Then Epps picked up the whip and continued to hit Patsey until her back was completely torn open. This scene really shows how rough the conditions really were in that slave owners were able to force slaves to attack one another. Traditional gender roles were forgotten about in a slave society, as females were made to work just as hard as men.

Throughout the film if the slaves didn’t obey their master they would get whipped until their back ripped open. “A nigger that don’t obey his master gets given many strikes, get beaten 40/100/150 lashes. That’s scripture”. There is a significant use of religion throughout the film. It explores the way white Christians in the American south used scripture and their faith to perpetuate injustice. Solomon is sold to Edwin Epps, an oppressive owner of a cotton plantation. Epps reads an excerpt from the bible “and that servant, which he knows his lords will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes”. The slave owners often refer to ideas from the bible to justify their motives to beat up the slaves.  When the crops die Epps claimed it as a “biblical plague” brought on by his slave’s unrighteousness and therefore sends them away. Epps uses religion to assert his authority over his slaves. He uses the scripture as an excuse to justify his behaviour towards the slaves. For him Christianity is a solution and a threat. The scripture supports the institution of slavery as Epps is very eager to read parts of the bible to all the slaves so that they are educated to why they get punished so badly. “Sin? There is no sin” he says when he brutally whips Patsey. The film depicts the violent side of Christianity in a slave society.

In some parts of the film religion is depicted as a comfort for the slaves, such as when one member of their community dies the men and women gather round his grave singing “Roll, Jordan, Roll” in unison. The slaves feel this moment as significant in that they are mentally and spiritually fleeing the dehumanisation of their bondage. This is one of the scenes where Solomon shows emotional connection with the slave community he has become part off and no longer thinks of himself as a free man. This film manages to portray religion as one of the most valuable but dangerous tools in the slave south.

In conclusion Twelve Years a Slave manages to capture what really happened and the conditions the slaves have to endure during the era of slavery by producing the film from a slave’s perspective. Extreme violence is used throughout to emphasise the physical and emotional pain slaves had to go through. Whips, paddles and shackles make repeated appearances throughout the film, as the main source of punishment.

Question: Do you think if slavery was present in the 21^st century would slaves be physically abused as they were in the past?