It was named Best Film at the Baftas, at
which one of its stars Chiwetel Ejiofor won the Best Actor Award. It’s been
nominated for 9 Oscars at this Sunday’s ceremony. It is 12 years a slave, Steve McQueen’s powerful film about what one reviewer
called ‘America’s original sin.’
Set in the USA before the Civil War,
when slavery was practised in the southern states, it tells the true story of
Solomon Northup, born a free man in 1808, but abducted in 1841 and sold into
slavery in the South.
The movie vividly depicts the horrors of
slavery, the attitude which regards other human being as “$1000 animals”, the
violent beatings which Northup described in his 1853 book as being ‘like the
burning agonies of hell.’ It is not a comfortable film to watch, but nor should
it be. Truth telling can be painful.
For slaves, death was the only escape,
heaven a vision of ultimate rest. For fellow-slave Patsy, grievously
mistreated, life was as Northup puts it ‘one long dream of liberty.’ She had
heard of different conditions in the North: ‘Far away, to her fancy an
immeasurable distance, she knew there was a land of freedom.’
Christians find both book and movie
illuminating. Northup was a Christian, seeking strength from God, and praying
in time of crisis. Through his experiences, he discovered the depths of evil,
‘the limitless extent of wickedness man will go for the love of gain.’
He also noted the effect which
unrestrained violence had on slave owners: ‘It had a tendency to brutalise the
humane and finer feelings of their nature.’ Book and film confront us yet again
with evidence of our human potential for evil.
We ask ourselves how we react to one of
the uncomfortable truths of our time – that an estimated 27 million people
worldwide are afflicted by 21st century forms of slavery – sex
trafficking, forced labour and the exploitation of migrant workers. Where are
our howls of protest and rage at this evidence that ‘the love of gain’ still
holds the power to corrupt?
Not all American slave owners treated
their slaves badly. Northup describes a young woman who was ‘an angel of
kindness.’ His first owner was a devout Christian in life as in word, who preached
to and prayed with his slaves in gentle sincerity.
Says Northup: ‘In my opinion there never
was a more kind, noble Christian man than William Ford.’ A later owner, Peter
Tanner also read the Bible to his slaves (as depicted in the film) but he was a
man of a different spirit, using it to manipulate them, to justify his
beatings, to inculcate obedience.
The Bible can be used to bless and
encourage, or to control and manipulate. Ford and Tanner challenge every one of
us who shares the Bible with other to examine our motives.
And Northup’s experiences highlight how
slow we can be to challenge our assumptions. William Ford was blind to the
iniquities of slavery, Northup argues, because he had never questioned the
system in which he had been raised. ‘He never doubted the moral right of one
man holding another in subjection.’
Similarly, people who had been life-long
slaves would instinctively ‘cringe before a white man’s look,’ not believing
themselves worthy of freedom.
We too are children of our age. What
assumptions do we accept unquestioningly? I may never have seriously considered
the claims of Christian faith because the predominant view in Scottish culture
is that God is an illusion. As a Christian, I may have accepted assumptions on,
say, the role of women or gay people without seriously exploring these issues. 12 years a slave challenges us to
examine our assumptions.
Solomon Northup was liberated after 12
years through the agency of one man who saw things as they were, and was
unafraid to speak the truth.
At the deepest level, book and movie
invite us to question what freedom is, asking what freedom looks like, and
whether we are truly free. I may be outwardly free, while inwardly enslaved by
fears, troubles, by a restless craving, by my assumptions, by my religion. My
life may in fact be ‘one long dream of liberty.’ As a Christian carrying such
burdens, I may see heaven as the land of freedom ‘at an immeasurable distance.’
But as Christians we believe that
someone came among us, someone who saw things as they were, who was unafraid to
speak the truth, who died for his truth telling. Jesus, who by rooting our security
in an unshakable, loving God, sets us truly free. And having found in Christ
ultimate security, and strength to cope with difficult circumstances, we
realise that the land of liberty is here, a spiritual dimension where we find
the strength to be.
(Christian Viewpoint column from the Highland News dated 27th February 2014)
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