12 Years a Slave (2013) - Quotes

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

Quotes about 12 Years a Slave: [appear in] 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.

Quotes about 12 Years a Slave: [https://www.theguardian.com/profile/paulmacinnes Paul MacInnes,; https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/07/twelve-years-a-slave-review-toronto "12 Years a Slave: Toronto film festival - first look review - Steve McQueen's much-hyped slavery drama is a brutal, excoriating and vital companion to Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained."] * Journalist in The Guardian. (Sept. 9, 2013)

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.

Quotes about 12 Years a Slave: [[w:Richard Corliss | Richard Corliss; https://entertainment.time.com/2013/09/09/12-years-a-slave-and-mandela-two-tales-of-racism-survived/ "12 Years a Slave and Mandela: Two Tales of Racism Survived - Of these biopics of racial abuse and transcendence, Steve McQueen's film is the brutal, eloquent keeper."] * Movie reviewer ], in Time magazine. (Sept. 9, 2013)

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.

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: [Epps has just whipped Patsey within an inch of her life] 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.

Patsey: I went to Massa Shaw's plantation!

Edwin Epps: Ya admit it.

Patsey: [she produces a piece of soap from the pocket of her dress] 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: [Having awakened Solomon in the middle of the night, Epps coaxes him outside, puts his arm around him as if consoling a friend, and guides him into the woods] 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: [reveals a pocket knife he'd had pressed against Solomon's gut the entire time] Well I'll be damned... Were he not free and white, Platt. Were he not free and white.

Solomon Northup: [Solomon awakens Armsby in the middle of the night. He offers him a handful of coins] 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: [about an outbreak of [[w:Cotton worm|Cotton worm] 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: [looks at the slaves] 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.

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.

Mary Epps: [about Patsey] 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Solomon Northup: [[w:Solomon Northup|Solomon Northup; [w:Free Negro|a free man; https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/joseph-trammells-freedom-papers papers.] 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: [[w:Kidnapping_into_slavery_in_the_United_States#Prevention_and_rescue|my liberation] And I promise you - I promise - upon ] I will have satisfaction for this wrong.

Birch: Resolve this. Produce your papers.

Birch: [[w:Fugitive slaves in the United States|runaway] 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.

Clemens: [[w:Black Codes (United States)|do and say as little as possible. Tell no one who you really are and tell no one that you can read and write.] If you want to survive, ] Unless you want to be a dead nigger.

John Tibeats: [singing; [w:Run, Nigger, Run|Run nigger run; [w:Slave patrol|pattyroller] ], 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.

John Tibeats: [[w:William Prince Ford|William Ford; https://www.britannica.com/topic/slavery-sociology/Master-slave-legal-relationships Master.; https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/overseer-and-driver overseer; [w:Plantation complexes in the Southern United States|This plantation covers many hundreds of acres; [w:Fugitive slaves in the United States|that gets a little light-footed; [w:Slave patrol|men and bloodhounds patrol the border; [Escape|escaped; https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2956.html You're here to work] 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.

Edwin Epps: [[w:Parable of the Faithful Servant#Narrative|"And that servant which knew his Lord's will... which knew his Lord's will and prepared not himself... prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes..."; [w:Torture_of_slaves_in_the_United_States#Whips_and_similar|"Stripes."; [w:The Bible and slavery|That's Scripture] ] 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... ].

Solomon Northup: [Upon meeting his family again after 12 years; [w:Treatment of slaves in the United States#Living conditions|I have had a difficult time] I apologize for my appearance. But ] these past several years.

Solomon Northup: [[despair; [freedom] I will not fall into ]. I will keep myself hardy, till ] is opportune!