12 Years between Life and Death

John Stauffer is professor of English and African American studies at Harvard. His books include The Black Hearts of Men (2002), GIANTS: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln (2008), and The Battle Hymn of the Republic (2013), which he coauthored with Benjamin Soskis. In this essay, Stauffer analyzes the popular film about slavery, 12 Years a Slave (2013). Using specific scenes from the movie, he delves into the concepts of lynching, suicide, and survival. Stauffer focuses particular attention on slaves’ perceptions of their options between life and death, as well as their ability to choose between those two options, within the total institution of slavery. Read this essay.