Old timey writing but still relevant

Twelve years a slave
by Solomon Northop

Oh how I love the floriferous writing of 1853!

Having been born a freeman, and for more than thirty years enjoyed the blessings of liberty in a free State--and having at the the end of the time been kidnapped and sold into Slavery, where I remained, until happily rescued in the month of January, 1853, after a bondage of twelve years--it has been suggested than an account of my life and fortunes would not be uninteresting to the public.

Once past the gratuitous introspections, retrospections, foreshadowing and hindsighting, all so common in 19th century compositions, I found what remained to be direct, unsentimental, and clearly honest. He tells it like it was and leaves it to future generations to make their own conclusions.

I'd seen the movie, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that they'd kept it relatively close to truth.  They had to do a great amount of creation to bring characters to life--from the description, old Mr. So-and-so, he was a cruel man, they had to create a face and garb, mannerisms and speech, then put words in his mouth because the memoir seldom recalled them.  (I wouldn't expect it to.)

But as to the book, it was definitely worth the reading.  The style wasn't all that difficult once you got used to the 19th century habit of using twice as many words as needed.  It had much to say, and more importantly, show about the brutalizing effects of slavery on people who were themselves not brutal at all.  I wish it could be read by the people of our times who keep slaves, but I fear it would be no use.  They wouldn't see themselves in these pages; people never do.