12 Years a Slave

Solomon Northup is a free African-American man in 1841, working as a violinist and living with his wife and two children in Saratoga Springs, New York. Two white men, Brown and Hamilton, offer him short-term employment as a musician in Washington, D.C.; instead, they drug Northup and deliver him to James H. Birch, the owner of a slave pen. Northup proclaims his freedom, only to be violently beaten and tortured.

He is shipped to New Orleans with other slaves, who tell him he must adapt if he wants to survive in the South. Slave trader Theophilus Freeman gives Northup the identity of “Platt”, a runaway slave from Georgia, and sells him to plantation owner William Ford. Ford takes a liking to Northup and gives him a violin. Tensions between Northup and plantation carpenter John Tibeats break when Northup defends himself from Tibeats and beats him with his own whip. Tibeats and his men prepare to lynch Northup but are stopped by the overseer. Northup is left on tiptoes with the noose around his neck for hours before Ford arrives and cuts him down. Northup attempts to explain his situation, but Ford sells him to plantation owner Edwin Epps.