Furious at his defiance, Tibeats and two associates attacked him with a hatchet. When Tibeats tried to whip Solomon, he fought back. His name was changed to Platt by his new owner John Tibeats – a “quick-tempered” carpenter who worked his slaves “from earliest dawn until late at night”.

He was then sold on to plantations in New Orleans and Louisiana, where he was forced to pick cotton and was subjected to constant batterings and degradation. Shocking: Illustration from 1856 Orton & Mulligan edition All his brutal blows could not force from my lips the foul lie that I was a slave.” “At length the paddle broke, leaving the useless handle in his hand. I did insist upon it, and then the blows were renewed, faster and more energetically, if possible, than before. When his unrelenting arm grew tired, he stopped and asked if I still insisted I was a free man. Despite having papers showing he was a free man, Solomon was whipped and beaten by his new “owner”.ĭescribing the attacks, he wrote: “Blow after blow was inflicted upon my naked body. Musician Solomon tells how in 1841, aged 33, he was tricked into leaving behind his wife and two young daughters in Saratoga Springs, New York, by two white men who offered him a job as a fiddler in a travelling circus.īut when they got to Washington DC, they drugged him and sold him to a slave trader called Burch. Starring British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon, the film opens here on Friday, but we can reveal how the book is every bit as violent and shocking. It’s based on a book of the same name – written by Solomon after his eventual escape – and has won widespread acclaim since it opened overseas for its accurate depiction of the brutal torture.

The film tells the horrific true story of free black man Solomon Northup, who was drugged, kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1850s America to suffer years of abuse.

It's the British movie expected to sweep the board at the Oscars – but graphic scenes of violence in 12 Years A Slave are not for the squeamish.

12 years a slave real story