Solomon Northrup's Slave Narrative: 12 Years a Slave

  Through reading just a small portion of Solomon Northrup's narrative I gained new knowledge and insight on the topic of slavery. I discovered how different the lives of African Americans in the north and south could be and that those born free slaves were almost oblivious to how different their lives were from slaves. Solomon mentions in the beginning of his narrative, "We always returned home from the performance of these services with money in our pockets; so that, with fiddling, cooking, and farming, we soon found ourselves in the possession of abundance, and, in fact, leading a happy and prosperous life." He explains his life in a way where he seems content, his life is normal, "happy", and "prosperous". Most slaves would describe their lives in a complete opposite way. It is evident in the narrative that Solomon did not realize how different his life was when he states "While living at the United States Hotel, I frequently met with slaves, who had accompanied their masters from the South. They were always well dressed and well provided for, leading apparently an easy life, with but few of its ordinary troubles to perplex them. " Illustrating the unawareness Solomon possessed.