Construction of Slave Body in Solomon Northup's Twelve Years a Slave

Abstract

This paper explores the brutal treatment of white masters over illegal slaves. For this I analyze Solomon Northup's Twelve Years a Slave. It also further studies the master's treatment over slave body, and also the construction of slave body, humiliation and constant fear and a fellow man's struggle for life focusing on the white men's perception of the black body and how they are tortured, assaulted, beaten, threaten and killed. African American literary theoretical analysis, other slave narratives and the critical reviews help to analyze the salve life and its deeply rooted concept over the black people in American society. The main focus of this research is finding on how the masters control the body of the slave and exploit it. It also shades light on the double trouble of female slave and their tortured life. Even child slaves are also becomes the victim of the brutality of slave holders. The illegal practice of slavery is also seen in hidden form. Slaves are only the means of reproduction and the machine for the field. They are not taken as human being but they are tortured, humiliated, exploited and killed. All these features are found in Solomon Northup's Twelve Years a Slave. Key Terms: Tortured Body, Objectification, Slave Narrative, Sexual Body, Threatened Body, Dead Body, Mistreatment, Brutality, Slavery.