Search results
Oct 17, 2013 · McQueen and British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, who plays Northup in the film, tell NPR's Renee Montagne about the perils of plantation life and the inspiration they drew from Northup's own words....
- During What Years Was Solomon Northup A Slave?
- Did Solomon Northup Really Play The Violin?
- Did Two Men Really Trick Solomon Into Going to Washington, D.C. with them?
- Did Solomon's Kidnappers Really Drug him?
- Did A Sailor Really Murder One of The Slaves on The Ship?
- Was Solomon Northup's Name Really Changed?
- Did Northup Really Get Into A Scuffle with Tibeats Over A Set of nails?
- Was Edwin Epps Really as Cruel as The Movie portrays?
- Did Edwin Epps Really Obsess Over His Female Slave Patsey?
- Did Mistress Epps Really Encourage Her Husband to Whip Patsey?
Like in the movie, the real Solomon Northup was tricked and sold into slavery in 1841 and did not regain his freedom until January 3, 1853.
Yes. During our investigation into the 12 Years a Slavetrue story, we learned that Solomon began playing the violin during the leisure hours of his youth, after he finished his main duty of helping his father on the farm. In his memoir, he calls the violin "the ruling passion of my youth," going on to say, "It has also been the source of consolatio...
Yes. Solomon met the two men in the village of Saratoga Springs, New York. The men had heard that Solomon was an "expert player of the violin". They identified themselves using fake names and told him that they were part of a circus company that was looking for someone with his precise musical talent. The two men, later identified as Joseph Russell...
As he indicated in his autobiography, the real Solomon Northup is not positive that he was in fact drugged, however, he remembers various clues that led him to that conclusion. He had spent the day with Alexander Merrill and Joseph Russell making stops at a number of saloons in Washington, D.C. They were observing the festivities that were part of ...
No. The real Solomon Northup did come up with a plan to take over the brig Orleansalong with two other slaves, Arthur and Robert. However, unlike what happens in the film, Robert did not die after being stabbed when he came to the defense of Eliza, who in the movie is on the verge of being raped by a sailor. Instead, Robert died from smallpox and t...
Yes. Evidence discovered while researching the true story behind 12 Years a Slave confirmed that Solomon Northup's name was in fact changed to Platt Hamilton. An official record of the name appears on the April 1841 manifest of the brig Orleans, the ship that carried Northup southward from the Port of Richmond, Virginia to the Port of New Orleans, ...
Yes. Like in the movie, the scuffle over the nails resulted in a carpenter named John M. Tibeats trying to whip Northup, but Northup fended off the attack, grabbed the whip, and began to strike his attacker. Afterward, Tibeats fetched two overseers that he knew on neighboring plantations. The men bound Northup and put a noose around his neck. They ...
Yes. In fact, the real Edwin Epps was crueler than actor Michael Fassbender portrays him to be in the movie. In addition to Edwin Epps being overcome by "dancing moods", where he would force the exhausted slaves to dance, in real life, Epps also had his "whipping moods". Epps usually found himself in a "whipping mood" when he was drunk. He would dr...
Yes, but the movie puts more focus on Edwin Epps's alternating passion for and disgust with Patsey (Lupita Nyong'o) than Northup's memoir. In his book, the real Solomon Northup refers to Epps's "lewd intentions" toward Patsey, especially when he was intoxicated.
Yes. Despite Patsey having a remarkable gift for picking cotton quickly, she was one of the most severely beaten slaves. This was mainly due to Mistress Epps encouraging her husband Edwin to whip Patsey because, as Northup writes, Patsey had become the "slave of a licentious master and a jealous mistress." Northup goes on to describe her as the "en...
Nov 4, 2013 · The film is based on the memoir written by Solomon Northup, which reveals what happened after Solomon (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor) - a free black man living in New York in pre-Civil War America - was kidnapped and sold into slavery, before he was able to regain his freedom more than a decade later.
- Sandy Schaefer
Oct 18, 2023 · In 1841, Northup was kidnapped and sold into slavery, suffering 12 years in bondage. McQueen and the powerful cast brought his jaw-dropping story to life.
Here are the facts. Who Was Solomon Northup? Spoiler alert: This section of the column — and only this section — contains some information also covered in the film. Solomon Northup spent his...
People also ask
Who plays Solomon Northup based on a true story?
How long did John Northup spend in slavery?
Who plays Northup in hunger?
How old were the Northup family at the time of the kidnapping?
Oct 18, 2022 · While being enslaved on the Ford plantation, Solomon Northup clashes with the sadistic carpenter, John Tibeats. One of their worst encounters happens when Northup and Tibeats argue over some...