12 Years a Slave

The situational irony that underlies the entire memoir is that Solomon is a free Black man who has ended up enslaved. This is particularly ironic because he has been free his entire life and never considered the possibility that something like this could happen to him. When Hamilton and Brown encourage him to obtain free papers before they travel to Washington, D.C., for example, Solomon writes that the idea “would scarcely have occurred to me, had they not proposed it […] the apprehension of danger to my personal safety never having suggested itself to me in the remotest manner.”

That Solomon ends up being kidnapped while visiting the nation’s capital—the symbol of freedom and democracy—is an example of situational irony. He notes the irony of this as he is being transferred from the slave pen to the ship that takes him to Louisiana (the passage also contains an allusion to the song "Hail, Columbia"):

So we passed, hand-cuffed and in silence, through the streets of Washington—through the Capital of a nation, whose theory of government, we are told, rests on the foundation of man’s inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness! Hail! Columbia, happy land, indeed!

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Epps—the cruelest of Solomon's enslavers—tortures the people he enslaves in numerous ways, including by waking them up in the middle of the night (after they’ve spent the day working) and forcing them to sing, dance, and act as if they are having a good time. Solomon’s description of these nights captures the situational irony of desperately unhappy people being forced to act like they are enjoying themselves:

Frequently, we were thus detained until almost morning. Bent with excessive toil—actually suffering for a little refreshing rest, and feeling rather as if we could cast ourselves upon the earth and weep, many a night in the house of Edwin Epps have his unhappy slaves been made to dance and laugh.

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In an example of situational irony, James Burch (the slave dealer who sold Solomon into slavery) is allowed to testify in the court hearing about Solomon’s enslavement—but Solomon himself isn’t. Even with Solomon’s lawyer arguing that it was blatantly unfair for Burch to be able to speak as a witness with Solomon unable to, the court still allowed it, as Solomon describes:

I was then offered as a witness, but, objection being made, the court decided my evidence inadmissible. It was rejected solely on the ground that I was a colored man—the fact of my being a free citizen of New-York not being disputed. [...] Burch himself was offered as a witness in his own behalf. It was contended by counsel for the people, that such testimony should not be allowed—that it was in contravention of every rule of evidence, and if permitted would defeat the ends of justice. His testimony, however, was received by the court!

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