Free Black Men Rhetorical Analysis

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During this time, free black men had no official document that stated they were free. Many black people were affected by this, one of them being Northup. Solomon Northup was a free black man from New York who was kidnapped by two white men. He was offered a well paid position in a circus, but the catch was that he had to travel to Washington. Once there, Hamilton and his friend got him drunk one night and kidnapped him. When Northup woke up, he realized that he had been captured and sold into slavery. He tried to let the slave traders know that he was a free black man, but the slave traders did not believe him. They asked him if he had a way to prove that he was free, but since Northup did not have proof they dismissed his comment and beat him up saying, “you ain’t no free man… you ain’t nothing but a Georgia runaway.” …show more content…
When Eliza starts crying for her children Northup tell her to be quiet and she asks him if he does not miss his children and they start arguing about how Northup “truckles at his boot” and he responds with “I survive, I will not fall into despair. I will offer up my talents to master Ford!” This is when Northup started to give up the idea that he wanted to live. Another indication that made the audience believe that Northup had given up was when Armsby told on him that Northup had asked him to send a letter to the North saying who he really was. When Northup’s master confronted him about it, Northup said that Armsby was lying and Master Epps believed him and let him go. Right after that, Northup goes to the forest and burns the letter. This was another sign that he had given up on trying to be free