Question

Read the excerpt from Twelve Years a Slave Chapter 9:

"Oh! how heavily the welght of slavery pressed upon me then. I must toll day after day, endure abuse and
taunts and scoffs, sleep on the hard ground, live on the coarsest fare, and not only this, but live the slave of a
blood-seeking wretch, of whom I must stand henceforth in continued fear and dread. Why had I not dled in
my young years-before God had given me children to love and live for? What unhappiness and suffering and
sorrow it would have prevented. I sighed for liberty; but the bondman's chain was round me, and could not be
shaken off. I could only gaze wistfully towards the North, and think of the thousands of miles that stretched
between me and the soil of freedom, over which a black freeman may not pass."
Examine the bolded portions of the passage that describe the emotions created in Northup as a result of this conflict of
man versus soclety (Northup versus slavery). From these words and phrases, can you conclude how slavery makes
Northup feel?

Answer 1

Northup feels unhappy, melancholy, trapped, hopeless and alone.

Step-by-step explanation:

"Twelve Years a Slave" is a memoir in which author Solomon Northup recounts his experiences after being kidnapped and sold as a slave after living as a free black man who raised a family.

Although you didn't boldly mark any of the sentences presented in the excerpt shown in the question above, we can see that the excerpt is extremely sentimental, as it addresses the sadness and hopelessness that Northup felt when he was kidnapped and sold. The excerpt shows that Northup is extremely unhappy, melancholy and desperate. He goes so far as to wish he had died when he was younger to avoid feeling that sadness again. That's because in addition to losing his freedom, Northup was robbed and taken away from his family that he loved dearly.