12 Years a Slave

If you want to survive, do and say as little as possible. Tell no one who you really are and tell no one that you can read and write. Unless you want to be a dead nigger.

12 Years a Slave (film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Birch: Well well well, my boy, how yah feel now? Solomon Northup: I am Solomon Northup. I am a free man; a resident of Saratoga, New York. The residence also of my wife and children who are equally free. I have papers. You have no right whatsoever to detain me... Birch: Yah not any... Solomon Northup: And I promise you - I promise - upon my liberation I will have satisfaction for this wrong. Birch: Resolve this. Produce your papers. Birch: Yah no free man. And yah ain't from Saratoga. Yah from Georgia. Yah ain't a free man. Yah nuthin' but a Georgia runaway. Yah a runaway nigger from Georgia.

12 Years a Slave (film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Solomon Northup: We need a sympathetic ear. If we have an opportunity to explain our situation... Clemens: Who in your estimation is that sympathetic ear? Solomon Northup: The two men I journeyed with. I'm certain they're making inquires at this very moment. Clemens: I would be just as certain they are counting the money paid for delivering you to this place. Solomon Northup: They were not kidnappers. They were artists. Fellow performers. Clemens: You know that? You know for certain who they were? Clemens: How I reckon the situation: whatever past we had... well, that's done now. The reality to come is us being transported southward. New Orleans if I were to venture. After we arrive, we'll be put to market. Beyond that... Well, once in a slave state I suppose there's only one outcome.

12 Years a Slave (film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Robert: I say we fight. Solomon Northup: The crew is fairly small. If it were well planned, I believe they could be strong armed. Clemens: Three can't stand against a whole crew. The rest here are niggers, born and bred slaves. Niggers ain't got the stomach for a fight, not a damn one. Robert: All I know, we get where we traveling we'll wish we'd died trying. Clemens: Survival is not about certain death, it is about keeping your head down. Solomon Northup: Days ago I was with my family, in my home. Now you tell me all is lost. "Tell no one who I really am" if I want to survive. I don't want to survive, I want to live.

12 Years a Slave (film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Ford: I believe Tibeats is skulkin' about the premises somewhere. He wants you dead, and he will attempt to have you so. It's no longer safe for you here. And I don't believe you will remain passive if Tibeats attacks. I have transferred my debt to Edwin Epps. He will take charge of you. Solomon Northup: Master Ford, you must know; I am not a slave. Ford: I cannot hear that. Solomon Northup: Before I came to you I was a free man. Ford: I am trying to save your life! And... I have a debt to be mindful of. That, now, is to Edwin Epps. He is a hard man. Prides himself on being a "nigger breaker." But truthfully I could find no others who would have you. You've made a reputation of yourself. Whatever your circumstances, you are an exceptional nigger, Platt. I fear no good will come of it.

12 Years a Slave (film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Mary Epps: [about Patsey] You will remove that black bitch from this property, or I'll take myself back to Cheneyville. Edwin Epps: Back to the hogs's trough where I found you? Do not set yourself against Patsey, my dear. Cos I will rid myself of you well before I do away with her.

12 Years a Slave (film), CC BY-SA 4.0