00:00Sous-titrage Société Radio-Canada
00:30Many people, I hadn't heard of Salma Northup, but one time in the 1990s, I went to the old Fort House Museum in Fort Edward, New York, and on the guided tour, they mentioned that Salma Northup and his wife had lived there in the 19th century, and that he had been kidnapped and become a slave, and then wrote a book afterwards.
00:51I have had a difficult time these past several years.
01:00It was originally published in 1853, before the Civil War, of course, and it's very interesting because his attention to detail in the book shows just how curious he was and what an intelligent person he was, because he records every little detail that happened to him.
01:16No man writing in upstate New York could have fabricated this narrative.
01:21There is no justice in this slavery.
01:24If justice had been done, I never would have been here.
01:27When I had the book in my hand, I opened the page of the book, I couldn't put it down.
01:31It's an astonishing story of one man who holds on to his faith, holds on to his humanity through the worst kind of experience one could think of, and it was something which I thought the world should know about.
01:44It was such an amazing discovery for me.
01:46Many people don't even realize that there were free Negroes at the time, but of course there were.
01:53And Solomon and his wife were part of that free black community.
01:58And Solomon's father, Mintus, was born a slave who earned his freedom and then accumulated enough land to get citizenship rights, the right to vote in the state of New York.
02:11So Solomon was born free.
02:12He was never a slave until he was kidnapped.
02:16I was a free man.
02:17I'm not a slave.
02:18After 1808, the importation of slaves from Africa into the United States had been banned by the federal government.
02:29That meant that the supply of slave labor was limited.
02:32And therefore, places in the South that were just developing, that desperately needed labor, were willing to pay very high prices for slaves.
02:40And consequently, people with criminal minds would realize that if they could kidnap a free black person and get them into the South, they could make a lot of money.
02:50You're no free man.
02:52You're nothing but a Georgia runaway.
02:55Every free Negro in the United States knew that they had to carry their free papers.
03:00You have no right whatsoever to detain me.
03:02Resolve this.
03:03Produce your papers.
03:04Imagine that state of being.
03:09Days ago, I was with my family in my home.
03:13Now you tell me all is lost.
03:17Despite all the terrible things he experienced and that he saw, he's able to maintain his identity over all those years and to remember that somehow he is going to get home.
03:30And 12 Years a Slave is the greatest realistic depiction of slavery.
03:35It's brilliantly rendered.
03:37It makes you feel it, breathe it, smell it, experience it, suffer under the weight of the burden of the vulnerabilities of slavery in a way that's not pornographic.
03:50And that's the strength of the film.
03:54You know, there's so many levels to this book and to the story.
03:57And to me, Solomon's book is a gift.
04:00It is a gift from the middle of the 19th century right into the present day.
04:06It's a story that speaks to these ongoing debates as we grapple with what it means, what human dignity and human respect really, really mean.
04:14And how do we apply that on any given day?
04:18It would be an unspeakable happiness to see my wife and my family again.
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