Despite the fact that Solomon is describing horrific mistreatment and daily violence through most chapters of 12 Years a Slave, his tone remains quite even and steady throughout the book. For example, in Chapter 8, he describes a truly terrifying scene—when Tibeats and his white employees attack Solomon in order to hang him—in relatively emotionless language:
One of [Tibeats’s] companions then stepped forward, swearing if I made the least resistance he would break my head—he would tear me limb from limb—he would cut my black throat—and giving wide scope to other similar expressions. Perceiving any importunity altogether vain, I crossed my hands, submitting humbly to whatever disposition they might please to make of me.
Though Solomon captures his attackers' racist, violent language (and intent), his own language is seemingly unaffected—he describes himself as “perceiving an importunity altogether vain” and “humbly submitting.” It’s likely that, in using this formal and detached tone, he is hoping that his readers perceive him as emotionally stable and trustworthy, as juxtaposed with the out-of-control white men who sought to harm him.
That said, Solomon's tone does become emotional and impassioned in a few sections of the book, such as when Henry B. Northup finally comes to rescue him in Chapter 21:
I looked in the direction indicated, and as my eyes rested on his countenance, a world of images thronged my brain; a multitude of well-known faces—Anne’s, and the dear children’s, and my old dead father’s; all the scenes and associations of childhood and youth; all the friends of other and happier days, appeared and disappeared, flitting and floating like dissolving shadows before the vision of my imagination, until at last the perfect memory of the man recurred to me, and throwing up my hands towards Heaven, I exclaimed, in a voice louder than I could utter in a less exciting moment—
“Henry B. Northup! Thank God—thank God!”
In this moment, Solomon’s tone becomes reflective (“a world of images thronged my brain”) and emotional (“throwing up my hands towards Heaven, I exclaimed”), leading to a poignant and powerful moment that forms of the climax of the book. His tone here also communicates the depth of his love for his family, which is a difficult concept to capture with a more detached tone.
Despite the fact that Solomon is describing horrific mistreatment and daily violence through most chapters of 12 Years a Slave, his tone remains quite even and steady throughout the book. For example, in Chapter 8, he describes a truly terrifying scene—when Tibeats and his white employees attack Solomon in order to hang him—in relatively emotionless language:
One of [Tibeats’s] companions then stepped forward, swearing if I made the least resistance he would break my head—he would tear me limb from limb—he would cut my black throat—and giving wide scope to other similar expressions. Perceiving any importunity altogether vain, I crossed my hands, submitting humbly to whatever disposition they might please to make of me.
Though Solomon captures his attackers' racist, violent language (and intent), his own language is seemingly unaffected—he describes himself as “perceiving an importunity altogether vain” and “humbly submitting.” It’s likely that, in using this formal and detached tone, he is hoping that his readers perceive him as emotionally stable and trustworthy, as juxtaposed with the out-of-control white men who sought to harm him.
That said, Solomon's tone does become emotional and impassioned in a few sections of the book, such as when Henry B. Northup finally comes to rescue him in Chapter 21:
I looked in the direction indicated, and as my eyes rested on his countenance, a world of images thronged my brain; a multitude of well-known faces—Anne’s, and the dear children’s, and my old dead father’s; all the scenes and associations of childhood and youth; all the friends of other and happier days, appeared and disappeared, flitting and floating like dissolving shadows before the vision of my imagination, until at last the perfect memory of the man recurred to me, and throwing up my hands towards Heaven, I exclaimed, in a voice louder than I could utter in a less exciting moment—
“Henry B. Northup! Thank God—thank God!”
In this moment, Solomon’s tone becomes reflective (“a world of images thronged my brain”) and emotional (“throwing up my hands towards Heaven, I exclaimed”), leading to a poignant and powerful moment that forms of the climax of the book. His tone here also communicates the depth of his love for his family, which is a difficult concept to capture with a more detached tone.
