12 Years a Slave Teaching Study Guide with 45 Essay Questions and Answers (Based on the book by Solomon Northup)

Are you itching to teach your students about "Twelve Years a Slave" the absorbing narrative of Solomon Northup first published in 1853? Well, use this study guide that includes 45 essay questions to help test your students on their knowledge of the experience of the free man sold into slavery.

The amazing memoir that revealed unimaginable horrors about the slave markets is now gaining international recognition along with plenty of awards (including a BAFTA) that makes this story an ideal one to pass on to today's generation.

Help them (and yourself) learn about the tragedy of life on a plantation, and the unspeakable daily treatment of the slaves from the perspective of a 30-year-old man who was stolen away when his daughter was only a 7-year-old girl playing with dolls. Twelve years later, he returned to find her a 19-year-old married woman with a child.

The "!2 Years a Slave" book was written the year after Northup was freed -- and later published in the wake of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

His story was used by abolitionist groups and news organizations as part of the fight against slavery. The book into an unpopular, ignored status until the 1960s -- and was blessedly resurrected in 2013 after it was adapted into a feature film titled "12 Years a Slave," an award-winning film directed by Steve McQueen and produced by Brad Pitt. Pitt also played a supporting role in the film, alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Giamatti and Sarah Paulson.