#iraberlin

[awesomebeasy]

...Enslavement stoked Northup's generalized hatred of the institution and activated his determination to strike a blow against it. Almost immediately after he regained his freedom, Northup - doubtless encouraged by the opponents of slavery - decided to make his story known, and within two years of his return, his book was in print. On page after page, Northup tells of the brutality of chattel bondage, the endless and often senseless beatings, the frequent, soul-crushing humiliations, the casual and callous destruction of family life - themes sure to raise the ire of white Northerners, even those who had little to no interest in the movement against slavery. He is especially attentive to the dangers slave women faced and to the seemingly endless sexual abuse they endured at the hands of white men of all classes...

12 Years a Slave, Ira Berlin's introduction

[awesomebeasy]

He then joined the mass of black humanity - some one million in number - that was forcibly transported south to reconstruct the plantation economy on new ground, and the center of American slavery shifted from the production of tobacco and rice in the seaboard states to that of cotton and sugar in the interior. In Louisiana, Northup labored as a slave for twelve years until, in 1853, a dramatic rescue returned him to freedom and his family in the North.

!2 Years a Slave, Ira Berlin's introduction