Slavery takes its place in history by containing our nation's darkest and cruelest centuries. Often people are only exposed to the surface of a very complex time period. Slavery in the United States had very complex facets. In the exceptional film 12 Years a Slave, the life of a slave captured through the eyes of Solomon Northup. Despite being a free man, Northup was kidnapped and wrongly sold into slavery. During its journey, I was able to identify different elements of slavery such as physical brutality/sexual harassment, the relationship between slave and master, and slave rebellion. I cannot begin to imagine the inhumane treatment that slaves receive from their masters day in and day out. . As Solomon (or his slave name, Platt) and other slaves carry out their tasks, they are constantly challenged by their master. Whether they perform their jobs correctly or not, it becomes clear that some slave owners simply enjoy the feeling of power they gain from shouting orders to dozens of people. What motivated some white men was the power of violence. Several times throughout the film, Solomon and other slaves were beaten for senseless reasons. Even if a slave complied perfectly with his owner's request, there was no guarantee that he would not be beaten. In addition to physical violence, the case of sexual harassment was also presented. Solomon's slave master had complete control over his slaves, and many of them came to the idea that subjectivity was their only way to survive. There was a scene where the master was raping a slave girl named Patsy, and all she could do was stand there, lifeless. Often what bubbled up from slave-master relationships like this was animosity coming from the middle of the paper. In the eyes of the slave master, a slave who responds by defending himself is a slave who defies him, and this is unacceptable. There were many times when Solomon defended his word against a white man, and each time he fought to escape a beating. While Solomon was living in the residence of his first slave master, there was one instance where he actually took the whip from a white man he was arguing with and began beating him to the ground. This was an extreme form of slave rebellion. Overall, I believe that 12 Years a Slave was a gripping film that exposed many important and underlying details of slavery. As we see with Solomon Northup, sometimes it's not enough to simply survive. Surviving does not mean truly living freely, and Solomon shows that freedom is a freedom worth fighting for..