"I don't want to survive I want to live." Solomon, the violinist who was accidentally drunk and sold, said so.
Many times when I see the story being changed by the truth, my heart will be touched, and this story is the same. He was a free man, but he inexplicably became a slave, was sold like an object, whipped like an animal, could not resist, could not speak his identity, could not have his own thoughts.
Sometimes freedom is a verb, and you immerse yourself in it and enjoy yourself. And here freedom has become a term, a spiritual pillar that is unremittingly searched for and found, because I want to have it again, so even if I live an inhuman life, I am still waiting and being free, and reuniting with my loved ones again.
So now let's get into the story and seek out Solomon's power to regain his freedom.
★ Decent work, warm family, free identity
In 1841, there was such a violinist in New York State, his piano skills were so good that some people even invited him to perform violin. His wife was gentle and virtuous, pregnant with a son and a daughter, and life was so full.
On this day Solomon's friends introduced him to two artists, Brown and Hamis, who were magicians and assistants at the zoo, and the two wanted to invite Solomon to play the violin for their performance. And gave a fairly good pay, one dollar a day, three dollars a night, and only needed a week of work. With such a high salary, solomon could hardly not be moved, so the dinner of the three of them was quite harmonious. Solomon felt that they were not only generous employers, but also very good artists, and said "cheers" with wine.
★ Whipped for freedom
In the basement cabin with a dilapidated iron railing, Solomon awoke, the sound of handcuffs and ankle chains reminding him of what had happened the night before. Brown and Hamis get him drunk and help him to the hotel, where he is confused and Hanmies tells him that tomorrow will be a fresh start.
Solomon withdrew the chain, the door to the hut was opened, and two ill-looking white men came in with a board. Solomon wanted to step forward, but was imprisoned by the chains on the wall and could not get close, and could only anxiously tell them that he was from New York State, a free man, and they had no right to treat him like this!
The two white men didn't seem to hear him at all, and told him in a deaf ear that you were a, a who had run out of Georgia. [The slave states of Georgia at the time] were not free men at all! Pulling the chain hard, Solomon fell to his knees in a forced manner, and one of the white men picked up the board and slammed it on Solomon's back. Repeat over and over again, you are a slave! Georgia's runaway slave!
Solomon cried helplessly for help, but no one could hear him.
★ Become a slave to be sold, the beginning of exile
Solomon also met other black people who had been trafficked here, and a little black boy, and then the black boy's mother and sister also entered the place. They were asked to be washed, and then they were pulled into a carriage overnight and transported to the seashore on a ship selling negroes.
The ship was traveling far away, and in the cabin, there were many black people gathered, and Clemens, a black boy who entered the ship with Solomon, saw Solomon looking around, and told him: "If you want to survive, try to say as little as possible, don't let anyone say your true identity, and don't say who you can read and write, unless you don't want to live." ”
Then I saw a white man descend to the bottom of the ship to remove a black man's mouth cover: "Shut my mouth tight!" ”
Solomon began to analyze to them that there were not many people on board, and that if they resisted together, they would have a chance to escape.
But Clemens, who had previously admonished Solomon, remained pessimistic and said that most of the ships were born black slaves, and they did not have the courage to resist: "Survival is not related to certain death, but to act in a low-key manner." ”
Solomon reflected on the changes in the past few days and said unacceptably: "I don't want to survive, I want to live." ”
At night, a white man coveted the mother of a black boy and wanted to occupy her, at this time the black man who had been wearing a mouth covering patted him on the shoulder, trembling and trying to stop it, the white man did not hesitate to stab the knife into the black man's abdomen, and just like that, Solomon and Clemens put it into a body bag and threw it into the sea.
Clemens' white director, who docked, angrily took the paperwork to warn them that if clemens was not handed over, he would go to court to sue them, so Clemens returned to his master, and Solomon called Clemens's name, and it became clear that Clemens did not turn back, and he was afraid to return to the ship that trafficked him where he did not know where to go.
★ It was Solomon not Pratt
Solomon, like the other blacks, waited for the roll call, and the fat white man with glasses read the names on the list, and the people who were read stood up one by one. "Pratt, Pratt, Pratt!"
"You fit the descriptive characteristics, I call you, why don't you answer!"
"My name is Not Pratt, my name is ,,,," Solomon said, and before the white man could finish speaking, the white fat man punched him in the face.
"Your name is Pratt."
★ I will stay motivated until I am free again
In the transaction, Solomon was sold to a plantation owner named Ford. Mr. Ford was a kind man, and he had wanted to talk about the grief of the black boys' family buying them and not allowing them to suffer the separation of mother and son, mother and daughter. But the high prices of the traffickers made Mr. Ford unable to afford it, and in the end he had to buy the black boy's mother, Eliza, while the boy and his sister went to different places.
Solomon used his talents to help Mr. Ford solve many problems, and was appreciated by Mr. Ford and gave him a violin, but also attracted the displeasure of a white overseer named John. And Eliza, who came with her, wept all day, even when she was chanting the Bible, and Solomon advised her not to do it again. Eliza blamed Solomon for giving up his children so easily, forgetting them, and accepting slave status so naturally.
"Immerse yourself in grief and you'll sink deeper and deeper."
"Are you not shedding tears for your children anymore?" You're silent, but have you thought about them in your heart? ”
"They're my flesh and blood."
"Then who do you say is uncomfortable, and have I upset the master?" You care about their feelings, but you don't care about my feelings. “
"Ford's owner is a nice guy."
"He's a slave owner!"
"He was a slave owner under conditions."
"You're still going to please him!" Go and enjoy his handouts! ”
"I'm here to survive, and I'm not going to fall into despair!" I will dedicate my talents to the Ford master and I will keep motivated until I am free again."
Eliza continued to taunt Solomon without hesitation, saying that he was just a little more expensive in Ford's eyes, and that if he knew about Solomon's past, there would be no good results.
"To defend my freedom, my back was full of scars. Don't condemn me! ”
Eliza was eventually taken away,,,,
John was dissatisfied with Solomon's appearance, so he caused Trouble for Solomon and asked Solomon to throw the planks, even though the planks had already been polished by Solomon. Ask Solomon to go to Robin and get a bucket of nails to re-nail the planks. Solomon did everything, but John still took out his whip and beat Solomon. Solomon couldn't resist fighting back and beat John up on the grass, warning that Solomon would strip him of his skin. Robin, as the plantation's overseer, told Solomon not to leave the plantation if he wanted to survive.
John took someone to tie Solomon's hands and feet, and the neck noose fell on the tree, and Solomon tiptoed, almost hanging in the air, and Robin appeared and drove away John and the others. Solomon was hung from a tree all afternoon, not knowing if it was a punishment or not, until Mr. Ford arrived and cut the rope, and Solomon was able to retrieve another life.
In order to save Solomon's life, Mr. Ford would rather bear a huge debt and transfer Solomon to Epps, who has the title of "Black Killer". Because he was the only one who rushed to the current Solomon.
Solomon became Epps' slave again.
Epps was moody, and even when he was happy to drink in the middle of the night, he would pull everyone into the hall of the house and make them sing and dance, most of whom was the greedy young black girl Pats. His white wife picked up the bottle in a furious manner and smashed it on Pats's head, and Pats curled up on the ground in pain and was dragged out of the room. And Epps and his white wife are still arguing for Pats, Epps covets Pats's young beauty, and his wife is angry that Pats seduced her husband, and his husband did not care whether she left home or not, and tried to keep Pats, just a sentence: "She picks more cotton than anyone, and it is okay to sell it to anyone, only she can't." ”
Yes, Pats had to pick more than five hundred pounds of cotton every day, and it took two hundred pounds of cotton per person to pick cotton, and the high-intensity labor could not bring any reward, and it was still only the sexual assault of the farmer and the beating of the farmer's wife, even if it was so difficult to wash his body with a piece of soap. Her mouth was pushed back, and the violent Epps had her clothes stripped naked, tied to a pillar, whipped and whipped again and again, and when she was medicated at night, Pats cried incessantly, not knowing whether it was because of pain or because of the injustice of fate.
It was another night of piano dancing in the middle of the night, and Mrs. Epps brought snacks to the slaves, except for Pats, and not only that, Mrs. Epps also scratched the wounds on Pats's face.
In the night Solomon was woken up by the clap, it was Pats, who took out the gold jewelry she had stolen from Mrs. Epps and gave it to Solomon, desperately begging Solomon to lay his head in the swamp and drown, burying his body in the mountain. Solomon refused to roll over and lie down,,,
Epps' cotton was infested with insects, and he blamed it all on Solomon's black men, so he temporarily transferred them to the owner of another sugar plantation. The owner thought Solomon was doing a good job and asked him if he had grown sugar cane before. Educated?
Solomon replied, no, and said that slaves were used for work, not for reading and writing. This was mrs. Epps's warning to him, and Solomon's answer was clearly satisfactory to the owner, who, hearing that he could play the violin, introduced him to play for his friend's birthday party, and the reward Solomon could put away himself.
Epps' plague was gone, Solomon was back on the farm, and when he saw Pats again, Pats's right eye was injured, and Epps was as moody as ever.
★ Another betrayal, what burns is the letter, what does not destroy is the hope in the heart
A white man named Ahnsby came to the farm to pick cotton with them, and this time Solomon picked only 160 pounds of cotton, while Ahnsby only picked 64 pounds. Epps punished Solomon with a scolding, but to Ahnsby, he said, "I believe that in the near future, you will be a master of picking cotton." ”
At night, Ahn S. B. Ainsby medicates Solomon, who learns that Ansby was once a supervisor, but thinks that he is addicted to drinking, which leads to unreliable work, and that he can't stand beating others all day and can always keep his sanity. Because of this, Solomon believed that Anzabe was a man of conscience, and gave Ahnsby all the money he earned in the sugar cane plantation, hoping that Anzabe would send him a letter to his friend. Ahnsby took the money and said he wouldn't tell anyone.
Solomon boiled it in mulberry juice, used a sharpened branch as a pen, and wrote down the encounters on the paper he had secretly hidden when he went to Barthemus for Madame Epps. But one night, Epps came to Solomon with a lamp and said that Ahnsby had told him that his black slave had hidden the devil and that if he did not catch it, he would run away. He also asked him to send a letter out to Maxwell.
Solomon was terrified, but calmly analyzed that Aanceby was an alcoholic, and that what he said was not credible. How to write a letter without pen and paper and ink? He is deceiving you so that you can believe in his abilities and make him an overseer.
Epps pointed suspiciously at Solomon and said that it was better that his white identity was not free, or you would die.
That night Solomon burned the letter he had painstakingly written, and the fire ignited it in one fell swoop,,,
The next day Solomon went on toil as usual, and Ahnsby was gone, but someone in the cotton field was found to be exhausted and dead! At the edge of the cemetery, the black people sang their songs and expressed their mourning, and Solomon revealed a desperate but had to continue to endure and persist in sorrow, he wanted to cry but did not dare to cry, he was afraid that he would really collapse.
★ The law changes, but universal truth does not change
Epps' white Canadian friend, Beth, a man of equality who thinks black and white people are the same, refuses when Epps cares about his hard work and hands him water, saying that Epps's laborers are harder than he is.
"They weren't hired to help, they were for my property."
"You are proud of this, it is not right, slavery has no fairness and justice to speak of. After all, what rights do you have over your black slaves? ”
"What rights? I paid for them. ”
"You paid for it, and the law recognizes holding them as your rights, but unfortunately, the law is not necessarily right." The law changes, but universal truth does not change. There is a truth to the truth that as long as it is true, it applies to everyone, black or white. ”
Solomon hears a conversation nearby, explains his knowledge and past to Beth when there is only bebeth and him, and asks Beth to help him send a letter. Although Beth was afraid of getting into trouble, she agreed.
Early one morning, the farm-making Solomon was stopped, and Solomon looked at the source of the sound, and next to the sheriff in black was not his former friend Parker, the grocery store owner! Solomon answered all the sheriff's questions smoothly and hugged Parker excitedly. Epps pressed hard as he tried to pull Solomon back. Parker tells Epps to wait until he sees him in court and loses!
Twelve years later, Solomon is finally free and home!
"I'm sorry, I'm only back now, I've had a very tough time all these years, Margaret, Alonzo."
His daughter Margaret handed the baby in her husband's arms to Solomon and told him that the child was his grandson's surname Solomon.
Solomon wept and said, "Forgive me."
Margaret caressed her father's vicissitudes and kissed him on the cheek: "It's not your fault. ”
The content of the story is not only about racial discrimination in the United States, but also about free and equal thinking for us. Solomon has been a slave for twelve years, never giving up the pursuit of freedom and equality, but we are enslaved for survival, unable to live well, we do not have the whipping and cursing of the farmer, but we are still afraid of our hands and feet. Can't be said to be wrong, we are also waiting for an opportunity, a time to have freedom!
This film is suitable for repeated viewing, there will be overwhelmed by survival, persistence can continue to live, taste the warmth of freedom.