By State Representative, Leon D. Young
Leon D. Young
Last weekend, I finally had an opportunity to see a movie that I have been waiting to see with great anticipation.
The movie to which I refer is ‘12 Years a Slave’.
It is often said that “the truth is stranger than fiction,” and that truly is the case with this movie storyline.
Based on an incredible true story of one man’s fight for survival and freedom.
In the pre-Civil War United States, Solomon Northrup (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free Black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.
Facing cruelty (personified by a malevolent slave owner, as well as unexpected kindnesses, Solomon struggles not only to stay alive, but to retain his dignity.
In the twelfth of his unforgettable odyssey, Solomon’s chance meeting with a Canadian abolitionist will forever alter his life.
The first thing that caught my attention about this movie was the sheer and utter brutality of this peculiar institution.
Men, women and children were dehumanized and sold like dumb livestock, with no regard for familial ties.
Slaves were routinely subjected to abject cruelty beyond words or imagination: rape, physical/mental torture or death (by hanging).
They were forced to toil (from sunrise to beyond sunset) in the hot-blazing sun and then beaten, if they failed to meet their quotas.
In essence, slavery was a living hell for millions of Black Americans.
The second thing that struck my mind was the manner in which Solomon Northrup became entrapped as a slave.
Black man Solomon lived as a free man in Saratoga, New York with his wife and two children, earning his living as a violinist.
On what he believes will be an out of town music gig, he’s instead drugged and sold into slavery in the deep south by two nefarious slave traders.
The atrocities that Solomon Northrup endured are beyond comprehension but, sadly, many of these same vile tactics are still being used today to entice victims of human trafficking.
Human-trafficking is a little-recognized crime that involves controlling, or attempting to control a person by force, fraud, debt bondage or coercion for exploitation or forced labor.
If this sounds familiar, well it should. Make no mistake about it: Human trafficking is just one of the several types of human bondage (or slavery) that exists today.
Moreover, unsuspecting targets of human trafficking are generally lured into the web by offers of a job, a meal, a place to stay or (worse yet) drugged into submission.
‘12 Years a Slave’ is a powerful movie treatise that’s definitely worth the price of admission, and provides some real insights and parallels with contemporary bondage practices.