Social Control and Repression of Personal Freedom

The assignment content discusses the life story of Solomon Northup, a black person who was kidnapped and sold into slavery. The story is based on a book published in the 19th century and has been adapted into a movie. The content explores the means and impact of controlling and repressing personal freedom of slaves experienced by Solomon Northup. It also touches upon the existence of social control in the United States, highlighting how even though slavery was abolished after the civil war, forms of enslavement still exist today.

Social science (12 years a slave)
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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................................3
The means and impact of controlling and repressing personal freedom of slaves experienced by Solomon
Northup..........................................................................................................................................................3
The existence of social control in the United States......................................................................................5
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................................5
Reference List................................................................................................................................................6
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Introduction
The movie 12 years as a slave is based on a book, published in 19 th century, which is a narration
of the real life story of a person Solomon Northup who was a slave. Solomon Northup was a
black person, who born in America he wanted to go to Washington DC where by tricks he was
kidnapped by someone and sold as slave. He was a literary and honored person and not get rid
of this slavery. He was transferred to extreme south and could not contact directly to his family
members. Human trafficking in this sector is highly notable according to (Du Bois and Burghardt
80). It is a crime. In the life story about the excessive torture around this slavery has been
discussed in the account of Solomon Northup. The life story has informed that he was slaving in
cotton and sugar cultivation and detailing the information on slavery among southern states. All
these plantations had surrounded majorly in Louisiana. This book has got some references and
instances from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s renowned novel on slavery Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852).
This novel has also founded bestseller like Uncle Tom’s Cabin as researched by (Feagin and Joe
55). It had brief annotations on slavery on USA. This book was telecast on Television in the year
1984 and it got Oscar in the year 2013.
The means and impact of controlling and repressing personal freedom of slaves
experienced by Solomon Northup
Solomon Northup was actually a carpenter and violinist by profession. He was stayed at
Saratoga, New York. He was a knowledgeable person on music. He was very highly skilled on it.
One day he was approached by some circus owners. They got some tricks to finally trapped him.
They offered him a high paying job. As he came to know about the money he did not look back
and without informing his wife he went to the capital city of United State with those strangers.
His wife also working on another town. As soon as he went to the capital city Washington D.C.
he found himself imprisoned and getting intoxicated by drugs. He stayed in the cell with some
other slaves trafficking from other states. When he announced himself as a free man he was
beaten very badly. Finally he was shifted to the south state named New Orleans. He had tried
repeatedly to send message and got connected with his family members by sending letters with
the hand of some of his reliable sources but due to lack of out knowledge his family person could
not able to rescue him. Thus in his journey of twelve years of slavery he was moving from one
owner to another. He was actually experienced a harsh reality of his life and endangered his life
almost. He and his fellow friends had almost got punished for their any misconduct to the
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owners. Northup’s account mainly describes about the cruel instances on slavery and how the
owners get liabilities by beating and giving punishments to them. The owners had come to them
very ill-mannered way. The owners could not give money as well as food also half of the day
he spent starving. The slaves like him could not go anywhere they had pass to move as opined by
(Davis and Angelique 271). They had the fixed time to eat and doing their cleaning. The owners
also have some patrollers appointed to vigil them as they work properly. The slaves were also
appointed to do domestic helps. In the early 18th and 19th century the slavery was being
practiced in the colonial countries in North America’s some parts as described by (Acharya,
Avidit, Blackwell and Maya Sen 621). In early colonial age the slavery was generated in the
British North America. After the civil war was over in the year 1775 there was a revolution had
happened. There was a color consciousness always in the mind of everyone and regarding this a
racial diversification was happened. This racial concept was originated from the people of black
color. The slavery only surrounded upon the African people. In the Author Toni Morrison’s
novel the black purple, there pecola is always detached and stays back from all the facilities
which other students get, because their skin tone is white. In this book also after the American
Revolution the small number of black people was free and was permissible to give vote as a
permanent citizen. They are free and owner of their property. But the continuous growth of
cultivation of cotton in few southern states encourages slavery and need the manual help. After
the revolutionary war the law of abolition had been passed in some of the northern states of
United States as viewed by (Alderman, Derek , Butler and Hanna 209). They had followed some
movement against slavery. But in the southern states it could not fall any impact as the regular
growth of cultivation demands more manual power. To meet the requirements by doing plan
some of the agents sent persons to do so. Solomon Northup was one of the victims. Thus the
family was getting split up, in south Afro-American culture was mixed and they continued to
earn their livelihood. Though they lived there under owner’s vigilance they did not get their
permanent stay right. Some illegal things were happened with the young community. In this
context Solomon Northup was an unpaid labor he had to work at least 10 hours for his owner. He
had to sign a contract to keep doing slavery throughout his life. Thus the freedom of the life of
Solomon Northup’s was ruled and repressed by this slavery.
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The existence of social control in the United States
Nowadays we see that somehow in some of the parts of South American provinces the slavery
has still present and spreading its negative impact on the mind of inhabitants. The color
classification is one of the salient features of this diversification. In North American provinces
this classification has now nearly ended because the abolition law established after the civil war.
The Multi National Companies are noted for their outsourcing of human resources. They have all
power in their hand to control the work force of developing countries. They organized an
invisible shackle in their hand and by this they bound the personnel’s to follow their order. The
socio political status here referred as financial enslavement as in today’s circumference many
organization hired their employee in contractual basis. Through this study anyone can say that
the past situation has recalled again. So finally the thing is that though the annihilation of the
slavery took place in Northern provinces of America partly the slavery still happened in the
Afro-American residents.
Conclusion
Nowadays the problems of racism still not be solved as the social structure has not changed. Due
to automation and recruitment of Multi National Companies the classification has still exist and
raised voice against the uniform social structure. The economic feudalism and the upcoming tide
of capitalism insist people to back down the lower class and this is the main socio political
drawback of modern American society.
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Reference List
Book
Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt. The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade to the United
States of America: 1638-1870. Oxford University Press, 2014.
Feagin, Joe R. Racist America: Roots, current realities, and future reparations. Routledge, 2014.
Journal
Acharya, Avidit, Matthew Blackwell, and Maya Sen. "The political legacy of American slavery."
The Journal of Politics 78.3 (2016): 621-641.
Alderman, Derek H., David L. Butler, and Stephen P. Hanna. "Memory, slavery, and plantation
museums: the River Road Project." (2016): 209-218.
Davis, Angelique M. "Apologies, Reparations, and the Continuing Legacy of the European Slave
Trade in the United States." Journal of Black Studies45.4 (2014): 271-286.
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