12 Years a Slave Quotes

Birch Well well well, my boy, how yah feel now?

Solomon Northup I am ]. I am ]; a resident of Saratoga, New York. The residence also of my wife and children who are equally free. I have You have no right whatsoever to detain me...

Birch Yah not any...

Solomon Northup And I promise you - I promise - upon ] I will have satisfaction for this wrong.

Birch Resolve this. Produce your papers.

Birch Yah no free man. And yah ain't from Saratoga. Yah from Georgia. Yah ain't a free man. Yah nuthin but a Georgia ]. Yah a runaway nigger from Georgia.

Patsey I went to Massa Shaw's plantation!

Edwin Epps Ya admit it.

Patsey Freely. And you know why? I got this from Mistress Shaw. Mistress Epps won't even grant me no soap ta clean with. Stink so much I make myself gag. Five hundred pounds a cotton day in, day out. More than any man here. And fo that I will be clean; that all I ax. Dis here what I went to Shaw's fo.

Edwin Epps You lie...

Patsey The Lord knows that's all.

Edwin Epps You lie!

Patsey And you blind wit yer own covetousness. I don't lie, Massa. If you kill me, I'll stick ta that.

Edwin Epps I'll learn you to go to Shaw's. Treach, go get some line.

Edwin Epps A plague! It's damn Biblical. Two season God done sent a plague to smite me. I am near ruination. Why, Treach? What I done that God hate me so? Do I not preach His word?

Treach The whole Bayou sufferin'.

Edwin Epps I don't care nothin fer the damn Bayou. I'm sufferin'. It's that Godless lot. They brought this on me. I bring em God's word, and heathens they are, they brung me God's scorn.

Bass The law says you have the right to hold a nigger, but begging the law's pardon... it lies. Is everything right because the law allows it? Suppose they'd pass a law taking away your liberty and making you a slave?

Edwin Epps Ha!

Bass Suppose!

Edwin Epps That ain't a supposable case.

Bass Because the law states that your liberties are undeniable? Because society deems it so? Laws change. Social systems crumble. Universal truths are constant. It is a fact, it is a plain fact that what is true and right is true and right for all. White and black alike.

Solomon Northup We need a sympathetic ear. If we have an opportunity to explain our situation...

Clemens Who in your estimation is that sympathetic ear?

Solomon Northup The two men I journeyed with. I'm certain they're making inquires at this very moment.

Clemens I would be just as certain they are counting the money paid for delivering you to this place.

Solomon Northup They were not kidnappers. They were artists. Fellow performers.

Clemens You know that? You know for certain who they were?

Clemens How I reckon the situation: whatever past we had... well, that's done now. The reality to come is us being transported southward. New Orleans if I were to venture. After we arrive, we'll be put to market. Beyond that... Well, once in a slave state I suppose there's only one outcome.

John Tibeats ], run so fast/Stoved his head in a hornets nest/Run nigger run well the ]'ll get you/ Run nigger run well you better get away.

Clemens If you want to survive, ] Unless you want to be a dead nigger.

Quotes about 12 Years a Slave There are so many aspects that often don't depictions of people in those oppressive circumstances. "12 Years a Slave," for example-one thing I missed in that film was some sense of joy, some sense of pleasure, some sense of humanity.

Solomon Northup I will not fall into ]. I will keep myself hardy, till ] is opportune!

Quotes about 12 Years a Slave * Movie reviewer ], in Time magazine. (Sept. 9, 2013)

John Tibeats My name is John Tibeats, ]'s chief carpenter. You will refer to me as Mister Chapin is the on this plantation. He is responsible for all of Ford's property. You too will refer to him as Master. ], and you will traverse the Texas road between the forest site and the sawmill in double time. Any clever nigger on that path ], I will remind him that on one side ] and on the other the bayou provides a hard living, with alligators and little to eat or drink that won't kill you. No slave has ] here with his life. niggers, so let's commence.

Solomon Northup I apologize for my appearance. But ] these past several years.

Edwin Epps ] D'ye hear that? ] That nigger that don't take care, that don't obey his lord - that's his master - d'ye see? - that ere nigger shall be beaten with many stripes. Now, "many" signifies a great many. Forty, a hundred, a hundred and fifty lashes... ].

Robert I say we fight.

Solomon Northup The crew is fairly small. If it were well planned, I believe they could be strong armed.

Clemens Three can't stand against a whole crew. The rest here are niggers, born and bred slaves. Niggers ain't got the stomach for a fight, not a damn one.

Robert All I know, we get where we traveling we'll wish we'd died trying.

Clemens Survival is not about certain death, it is about keeping your head down.

Solomon Northup Days ago I was with my family, in my home. Now you tell me all is lost. "Tell no one who I really am" if I want to survive. I don't want to survive, I want to live.

Quotes about 12 Years a Slave In 12 Years a Slave, McQueen immerses viewers in the magnolia-scented hell to which Northup was exiled. You will recoil at every whiplash, feel each slur, wonder at man’s inhumanity to men and women he thought animals.

Mary Epps You will remove that black bitch from this property, or I'll take myself back to Cheneyville.

Edwin Epps Back to the hogs's trough where I found you? Do not set yourself against Patsey, my dear. Cos I will rid myself of you well before I do away with her.

Quotes about 12 Years a Slave *2014 interview in Conversations with ] Edited by Sharon Lynette Jones (2021)

Mary Epps Where you from, Platt?

Solomon Northup I have told you.

Mary Epps Tell me again.

Solomon Northup Washington.

Mary Epps Who were your Master?

Solomon Northup Master name of Freeman.

Mary Epps Was he a learned man?

Solomon Northup I suppose so.

Mary Epps He learn you to read?

Solomon Northup A word here or there, but I have no understanding of the written text.

Mary Epps Don't trouble yourself with it. Same as the rest, Master bought you to work, that's all. Any more'll earn you a hundred lashes.

Quotes about 12 Years a Slave * Journalist in The Guardian. (Sept. 9, 2013)

Solomon Northup Thou devil! Sooner or later, somewhere in the course of eternal justice thou shalt answer for this sin!

Edwin Epps No sin! There is no sin! A man does how he pleases with his property. At the moment, Platt, I am of great pleasure. You be goddamn careful I don't come to wantin to lightenin my mood no further.

Quotes about 12 Years a Slave 12 Years a Slave is a scarifying, unblinking portrayal of life as it was for tens of thousands of people less than 200 years ago. It pulls no punches.

Ford I believe Tibeats is skulkin about the premises somewhere. He wants you dead, and he will attempt to have you so. It's no longer safe for you here. And I don't believe you will remain passive if Tibeats attacks. I have transferred my debt to Edwin Epps. He will take charge of you.

Solomon Northup Master Ford, you must know; I am not a slave.

Ford I cannot hear that.

Solomon Northup Before I came to you I was a free man.

Ford I am trying to save your life! And... I have a debt to be mindful of. That, now, is to Edwin Epps. He is a hard man. Prides himself on being a "nigger breaker." But truthfully I could find no others who would have you. You've made a reputation of yourself. Whatever your circumstances, you are an exceptional nigger, Platt. I fear no good will come of it.

Solomon Northup The proceeds of my fiddling performances. A few picayunes, but all I have in the world. I promise them to you if you will do me the favor I require. But I beg you not to expose me if you cannot grant the request.

Armsby What do you ask?

Solomon Northup First, your word, sir.

Armsby On my honor.

Solomon Northup It is a simple enough request. I ask only that you deposit a letter in the Marksville post office. And that you keep the action an inviolable secret forever. The details of the letter are of no consequence. Even at that, there would be an imposition of much pain and suffering were it known I was the author. A patron is what I require, sir.

Armsby Where is the letter now?

Solomon Northup It is not yet written. I will have it in a day. Two at most, my skill with composition as poor as it is.

Armsby I will do it. And will accept whatever payment is offered.

Edwin Epps Well, boy. I understand I've got a larned nigger that writes letters and tries to get white fellows to mail em. Well, Armsby tol me today the devil was among my niggers. That I had one that needed close watchin or he would run away. When I axed him why, he said you come over to him and waked him up in the middle of the night and wanted him to carry a letter to Marksville. What have yah got to say to that?

Solomon Northup There is no truth in it.

Edwin Epps You say.

Solomon Northup How could I write a letter without ink or paper? There is nobody I want to write to cause I hain't got no friends living as I know of. That Armsby is a lying drunken fellow. You know this, just as you know that I am constant in truth. Now, master, I can see what that Armsby is after, plain enough. Didn't he want you to hire him for an overseer? That's it. He wants to make you believe we're all going to run away and then he thinks you'll hire an overseer to watch us. He believes you are soft soap. He's given to such talk. I believe he's just made this story out of whole cloth, cause he wants to get a situation. It's all a lie, master, you may depend on't. It's all a lie.

Edwin Epps Well I'll be damned... Were he not free and white, Platt. Were he not free and white.