The Autobiography I have been assigned to start reading this week was Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup. It was originally published in 1852 and was very popular for a while because slave narratives were very much in demand at that time. It lost popularity for a period and then re-emerged in the mid-1900s. It was later turned into a movie in 2013.

Northup’s autobiography tells his story. He was a free black man living in New York. Northup described himself as being an ordinary colored man, although he was hardworking and strong-willed. Anyways, he had a wife, Anne Hampton, and three children, Elizabeth, Margaret, and Alonzo.

In 1841, two men came and offered to pay him a large sum of money to play his violin (which he was talented at) at a circus. He accepted the offer and went with them. But one day, he awoke in chains, and realized that he’d been deceived: the men had sold him as a slave. He had been kidnapped and shipped to New Orleans.

He remained a slave for the next twelve years. During all of this time, though, he remembered his children. This was one of the reasons he kept going, living in the hope that he would see them again. He was determined to escape and find them, or he thought that he would receive justice for what had been done to him.

Eliza Berry was a slave that Northup met during this time. She had two children, Randall and Emily. She loved them with all of her heart, so when she was separated from them both, it pained her very much.

She was separated from both her children, just like Northup. She and both of her children were sold to different masters and different places. She pleaded and begged the slave owners to keep them together, but it was in vain. Being torn from her children, Eliza suffered greatly, grieved that she would probably never see her children again.

Northup and Eliza both suffered because they were separated from their children. There were a few similarities in the ways that they reacted, but there were also a lot of differences.

For example, Eliza left her children in tears, knowing that she wouldn’t see them again. The last glance she had of either of them was their tear-streaked faces, pulled together in sorrow. In contrast, Northup’s last memories of his children before they were taken were of their smiling joyful faces, although he didn’t know that it would be a very long time until he’d see them again.

Also, Northup had the assurance and certainty that his children were safe at home with their mother and that he would see them again when he escaped. Eliza, on the other hand, knew that her children were indeed being treated cruelly, like most other slaves of that time, and had little to no hope of seeing them again.

Eliza and Northup both loved their children a lot and being separated from them grieved them both very much. But, Northup had the hope that he would someday see his children again, and he knew that they were safe, and were being cared for. Eliza’s children were her one joy in a life filled with the pain and sorrow slaves encountered. Once they were torn apart from her, she was left hopeless, drowning in misery.

These two people reacted very differently when they were separated from their children, but they were also in very different situations. Eliza knew that she would never see her children again, whereas, Northup kept the hope that he would reunite with his family when he escaped or was set free.