12 Years a Slave (2013 movie): Who was the woman who had sex with Solomon? Why did she cry after sex?
Just another slave on the plantation. In that scene it showed everyone living together in a very small room, on the floor and wherever there was space. I took that scene to show that the urge for intimacy and contact between male and female is still a part of humanity but the devastation of slavery reduced it to that. And if you had reached a point of desperation to express your human urge like that I suspect you would cry afterwards too.
12 Years a Slave (2013 movie): Why does Epps have Patsey beaten toward the end?
It ties to the scene earlier when Solomon ran to Shaw's plantation to retrieve Patsy. Shaw's mistress confirmed that Shaw had a reputation of sleeping with female slaves and Epps was always jealous that either Patsey was trying to get Shaw's affections or vice versa. So in his deranged mind seeing Patsey return from Shaw's he was convinced that something was going on behind his back.
12 Years a Slave (2013 movie): Why does Patsey keep picking so much cotton?
I think there were a few reasons. In that scene we saw a few things:1. The 2 people who picked less than the previous day were whipped. Didn't matter that they did more than other people, the fact they did less than they did before entitled them to a whipping.2. The person who did the most, Patsey was given free time to make dolls and relax while others still had duties to perform. I don't think was because the master favored Patsey at this point in time, he favored her picking 500lbs a day.3. If 1 and 2 wasn't enough reason ultimately it may have been as self satisfying a thing that was possible for her to do given her situation. The overall theme of the story was survival, one method may have been to consume yourself in your task and just to try to survive another day.
Question about the film '12 years a slave'?
that's exactly what the movie is trying to show that slaves had to pick huge amount of cotton otherwise they were whipped. Patsy was the only one who collected large amt. rest collected fairly average. And its also possible that she thought may be Fassbender's character (Epps ?) would not sexually assault her if she continues to do hard work. When she was whipped just because she was absent for a while to get soap she herself said that she collected 500 pounds cotton whole day and she at least deserve a good bath because she was completely exhausted from her work.
What happens to Eliza in 12 Years a Slave?
She is unable to recover from depression after losing her two children. In the movie, she is sold to another plantation owner, because Mrs. Ford finds her constant crying distracting. In the book, Eliza dies. Northup describes it this way: During the day, the Angel of the Lord, who moveth invisibly over all the earth, gathering in his harvest of departing souls, had silently entered the cabin of the dying woman, and taken her from thence. She was free at last!
12 Years a Slave (2013 movie): Did Patsey die after Solomon's liberation?
Historical documentation exists that Patsey did in fact gain liberation from the same plantation where Solomon was enslaved for a decade. A letter dated May 11, 1863, from Union Army Capt. Henry C. Devendorf related having met Edwin Epp’s slave Bob, who introduced Union soldiers to Patsey. Although Bob refused to leave his mother behind, Patsey made her escape at last “far from the caprices of [a] jealous mistress" and lascivious master. (SEE full-length text version at: Mexico independent. (Mexico, N.Y.) 1861-1872, June 18, 1863, Page 3, Image 3).
Why was Solomon Northup a free man at the beginning of 12 Years a Slave?
During the American Revolutionary War, African-American slavery existed in both the Southern and the Northern states, but in the North, supporters of the Revolution eventually came to believe that the revolutionary spirit of the war was inconsistent with the institution of slavery. As a result of popular opposition to slavery in the North, most of the Northern states except for a few border states had gradually abolished slavery long before the Civil War started. Solomon Northup's father, Mintus, was born a slave in Rhode Island, which still had 384 slaves living in the state according the 1800 census. Captain Henry Northup, the owner of Mintus, freed Solomon's father in his will in 1797. After getting his freedom, Mintus Northup married a free black woman, who would become Solomon Northup's biological mother. Because his mother was a free woman, Solomon Northup was born a free man as well, according to the English common law doctrine of partus sequitur ventrem (i.e., "that which is brought forth follows the womb"). In addition to the precedent set by English common law, Solomon Northup was also born in upstate New York, where a gradual abolition law enacted in 1799 was still in effect. According to that law, if Solomon's mother had been a slave, he would still be considered free under New York law, although he would be required to complete a term of indentured servitude until his twenties. Fortunately for Solomon, his mother's status as a free woman ensured that he was never legally required to go into indentured servitude before he was kidnapped into slavery.After Solomon's father Mintus was released from slavery, he stayed with the family of his owner's son, Henry Bliss Northup. It is through Mintus Northup that Henry Bliss Northup came to know Solomon Northup. In fact, when the real-life Solomon Northup passed along a letter to the Canadian carpenter with abolitionist views (played by Brad Pitt in the movie), the intended recipient of the letter was Henry Bliss Northup, who traveled down South and gathered the legal documents necessary to secure Solomon Northup's freedom, just as he did in the movie.Source: The number of slaves living in Rhode Island according to the 1800 census can be found at Slavery in Rhode Island.