Solomon Northup Shades of Grey: Book Review

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15). When describing his holding pen in Washington, DC, Northup described its location with painstaking accuracy, remarking that it was necessary, "in order to present a full and truthful statement…and to portray the institution of Slavery as I have seen and known it, to speak of well-known places" (Northup, p. 22).

Northup's careful construction of an impartial voice does not mean that his narrative is devoid of emotionality and even, on occasion, harsh judgment. He was not above calling some of those responsible for his agony "the incarnate devil" (p. 20) or a "coarse, heartless brute" (p. 102). His irony could sometimes be biting, as when he described a slave trader as "the very amiable, pious-hearted Mr. Theophilus Freeman," all the while recounting Mr. Freeman's brutal treatment of the slaves in his care (p. 35). And his descriptions of the bloody treatment of himself and others at the hands of traders and masters are often chilling and heart-wrenching.

These highly charged and often damning passages are balanced, however, by the generous praise given by Northup to those white men, even former masters, who showed kindness to him and other slaves. In his account of his time at the Great Pine Woods in Louisiana, Northup praised his master's character: "[I]t is but simple justice to him when I say, in my opinion, there never was a more kind, noble, candid, Christian man than William Ford" (Northup, p. 40). That Northup could write these words about a man who held him in enslavement speaks volumes about Northup's keen understanding of human society.

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Much later in the narrative, he expounds upon his philosophy of slavery and its effect on man:

It is not the fault of the slaveholder that he is cruel, so much as it is the fault of the system under which he lives. He cannot withstand the influence of habit and associations that surrounds him. (p. 86)

Insights such as these appear throughout the memoir, and serve more than perhaps anything else to assure the reader of Northup's generosity of spirit, his intelligence, and his intent to provide a balanced and above all honest account of slavery. Because of the care given by Northup in establishing himself as a trustworthy source of information while still recounting his time as a slave with all of the emotional force that it warranted, Twelve Years a Slave still stands as a valuable testament not only of slavery, but of the human capacity for truth, fairness, and courage.

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