12 Years a Slave

I read a remarkable book called 12 Years a Slave.  It was written in 1853 by a black man who had been a free man living up North, who was kidnapped and sold down South.  He was separated from his wife and children for twelve excruciating years and then freed.

 

He writes what comes across as an authentic account of his experiences as a slave.  The writing is beautiful and poignant.  How human beings were able to treat their fellow human beings so cruelly, particularly in America which was created to be the home of the free, is alarming.  The culture of the south, its mentality, was such that one could be an otherwise good, kind person but sanction barbarity.