Ideologies are a group of ideas that forms one’s plans, expectations, and behaviors, and ideologies impact and influence literature written in any time period and place. With ideologies, the idea of reflection comes into society as a text that will reflect a society that will produce it. The text, 12 Years a Slave, is a memoir about a free man named, Solomon Northup, who is kidnapped and forced to become a slave for 12 years. This text reflects the society of America in the South during the 1800s and explains how slavery changed the ideologies, values, and actions of Americans who lived during this time period. The principles within the society of 19th century America have impacted and influenced the life of Solomon Northup through his economic, societal, and religious ideologies. Economic status in society has impacted the way people interact and treat others, due to the amount of wealth or respect a person had.
Society was divided based on the idea of the economic base, which was composed of productive forces and relations of production. Productive forces are material things that are used to produce goods, which will make commodities. These productive forces can be slaves as they are treated as objects and make material things that bring money to slavers. As a productive force, Solomon is working under William Ford and is then sold to John Tibeat as a slave, Solomon accepts him as his master as he says“he [John] was my master, entitled by law to my flesh and blood, and to exercise over me such tyrannical control as his mean nature prompted; but there was no law that could prevent my looking upon him with intense contempt” (Northup 72). Sign Value, also known as commodification, is when valuing material things to impress others and for the power, but not for the material’s actual use. In this scenario, the material thing can be represented as slaves, and where the whole idea of slavery is an example of conspicuous consumption, which is an extreme focus on material possession. Slaveholders needed workers to make a profit, but they needed slaves to show off the number of slaves they had and to show how they had more power than anyone else. Solomon was a victim of commodification and realized how lots of slaveholders like Tibeats like to show off their power and was not much about their race. Furthermore, relations of production are the relationships between people from an economic perspective.
The relationship between Solomon and John Tibeats is a demonstration of a relation of production in the post-industrial society of America between a slave owner and slave. John Tibeats was a cruel man and was rude to all slaves. Solomon brings up a time when he “must toil day after day, endure abuse and taunts and scoffs, sleep on the hard ground, live on the coarsest fare, and not only this but live the slave of a blood-seeking wretch, of whom I must stand henceforth in continued fear and dread. […] I sighed for liberty, but the bondman’s chain was round me, and could not be shaken off.” (Northup 75). The relation of production can be mirrored by the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, as the proletariat can symbolize the slaves being the working class, while the bourgeoisie owns the property, which symbolizes the slaveholders and Caucasian people. The relations that Solomon has with the slaveholders are not the best as Tibeats tried hanging him and Epps made him whip Patsey. But, when looking at the economic factor, the work that Solomon did brought the slaveholders commodity. This relation, built up the superstructure of the society of 1800 America, which impacted Solomon as he was not accustomed to Southern America’s society and caused him lots of hardships. Racism has been a dominant worldview of Southern society of the 19th century as it provided a divide in class through ethnicity and color.
Slavery in America is portrayed clearly through the text in the thoughts and intentions of the slaves and the slave owners. Solomon Northup has thoughts that always surround the idea of slavery, racism, and the treatment of slaves and Solomon gives a perfect example of how accurate society was between the classes. In the Epps plantation, Solomon reflects on the society is affected by slavery and explains how “the existence of Slavery in its most cruel form among them has a tendency to brutalize the humane and finer feelings of their nature. Daily witnesses of human suffering—listening to the agonizing screeches of the human slave—beholding him writhing beneath the merciless lash—bitten and torn by dogs—dying without attention, and buried without shroud or coffin—it cannot otherwise be expected, than that they should become brutified and reckless of human life.” (Northup 147). The book demonstrates how racism is driven by human wickedness.
Solomon underlines that racism does not come from color or race, but just for the satisfaction of slave owners feeling superior in power and justifies their cruelty. Moreover, Solomon, along with the Canadian carpenter, Bass, makes various comments and references to slaveholders being darker in color due to their brutality and inhumanity. In the text, the cruelty of slave owners and the brutality that was used against them is evident and seen in the life of Solomon as he vividly explains the tortures and pains of Patsey from Master Epps. Patsey is one of the best cotton pickers on the Epps’ plantation but is always a victim of the abuses of Master Epps. Solomon explains the worst whipping he has seen Epps do to Patsey and in the aftermath, he writes that “it was the Sabbath of the Lord. The fields smiled in the warm sunlight—the birds chirped merrily amidst the foliage of the trees—peace, and happiness seemed to reign everywhere, save in the bosoms of Epps and his panting victim and the silent witnesses around him. The tempestuous emotions that were raging there were little in harmony with the calm and quiet beauty of the day. I could look on Epps only with unutterable loathing and abhorrence and thought within myself—“Thou devil, sooner or later, somewhere in the course of eternal justice, thou shalt answer for this sin!” (Northup 180). During this time period, the idea of slavery was the dominant worldview in Southern American society, which is displayed through the atrocity of Master Epps. However, Solomon explains and points out that racism is a learned behavior that is nurtured from society to other societies. These morals and beliefs of racism and slavery were manmade and a way of mass suffering of those of color, which was one of the overarching purposes of this memoir.
The ideologies of racism in America during the 1800s shaped the actions of many like Solomon and impacted him through the brutality and cruel treatment of other slaves and himself. The importance of religion could alternate and shape the way how one looks at a thing as religion can be the base of one’s driving force. One’s faith and beliefs can bring strength and hope, while one another’s can bring justice to the unjust. Solomon explains how God was with him through his journey and how God cares for all people, regardless of what race and class they were. Solomon always had hope and strength whenever his faiths and values appear. From a young age, Solomon has been infusing with the religion of Christianity and when a time of pain and suffering came, he resorted to god to save him and said“My cup of sorrow was full to overflowing. Then I lifted up my hands to God, and in the still watches of the night […] begged for mercy on the poor, forsaken captive. To the Almighty Father of us all—the freeman and the slave—I poured forth the supplications of a broken spirit, imploring strength from on high to bear up against the burden of my troubles […].” (Northup 47). Ginger Jones compares true slave encounters and how they commonly had great beliefs in their God, who would save them from this cruelty. Jones explains how “Northup feels “the weight of slavery” because he is a hostage; he does not claim to write in order to abolish slavery, but to interpret the events of his life and to itemize the dehumanization that stripped him of his identity and required him to speak to white men “in the attitude and language of a slave” (183). His perspective is similar to that of those who authored American captivity narratives, which were written in part to show the power of the Christian God, who would facilitate a rescue, over the power of heathen kidnappers” (Jones). When looking at the impact of religion, Solomon talks about the power of religion over others and states that God is loving, caring, and for all people, as a color has no part in God’s love.
Due to his strong faith, Solomon turns to religion as a sa source of hope and energy in his suffering, showing how the power of religion can impact one’s morals. Even in the memoir itself, Solomon encourages the reader to have faith in religion by destroying racism and aiding equality, which underlines the main purpose of the memoir. In contrast, when Solomon found hope and strength in God, people like Tanner and Epps found different ways to manipulate and use religion in a way to make slaves listen to their orders. In a time period and place like America, where Christianity was the dominant religion most practiced, it was easy for slaveholders to manipulate slaves into doing whatever they needed them to do. For instance, when Ford’s brother-in-law, Tanner, reads the bible to impress the slaves, he changes the verse and says “Don’t take care—that don’t obey his lord—that’s his master—…shall be beaten with many stripes.” (Northup 57). Tanner twists the verses of the Bible to maintain and preserve the idea of slavery in society, so for people like Tanner to be in power at all times. Religion was an institution that held power and controlled societies in the past. But, when slaveholders used religion as a manipulating mechanism, it worked as a false consciousness to the slaves, as they learned to accept their lives, praying that their god will come to help them. Even though Solomon knows what most slave owners are doing is wrong, there are some slaves who believe that the slave owners are their god and that what they say is all right due to their false consciousness. Religion, in general, was known as an institution in the past because of the amount of power it held and when looking at the life of Solomon Northup and other slaves, religion brought them strength for the brutality, but also despair under other slaveholders.