12 Years a Slave · written by John Ridley and Steve McQueen · 2013

The overseer orders Solomon to drive the workers; Solomon barely lashes them at first, but the overseer whips him until he does the job more forcefully.

Scene 162 of 211 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Sugar House Overseer

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 1:45 into a 2:22 film

The story so farBefore scene 162

After being kidnapped from New York and sold into slavery, Solomon Northup uses his skills and carefully placed trust to survive and seek a way back to his family.

Scenes 1–29
Solomon lives freely in Saratoga as a husband, father, worker, and musician.
Scenes 30–65
Kidnapped and held under the imposed name Platt, Solomon must preserve his life and identity.
Scenes 66–123
He enters plantation life under Ford, passes through Tibeats’s violence and the near-lynching, and is transferred to Epps.
Scene 124
Solomon is transferred to Epps’s plantation and placed among Patsey and the enslaved workers, opening the harsher final plantation phase.
Just before
Scene 159
Alone by the fire, Solomon burns a flower-shaped pattern into his forearm, marking the memory of the stained-glass gift from his daughter.
Scene 160
Turner questions Solomon about his background and skills, then promotes him to driver in the sugar house and offers him paid fiddle work.
Scene 161
At the sugar house, a driver hands Solomon a whip and explains that it is meant to make the workers obey.
Scene 162
This scene

162INT. JUDGE TURNER'S PLANTATION/SUGAR HOUSE - LATER

SLAVES working, toiling. Solomon watches over them, but does little else. The OVERSEER, not satisfied with the work being done, calls to Solomon.

SUGAR HOUSE OVERSEER

Drive them niggers!

SOLOMON USES THE LASH SPARINGLY AND POORLY, barely touching the slaves before him. The Overseer does not hesitate in using the lash on Solomon.

SUGAR HOUSE OVERSEER (CONT'D)

Drive them niggers.

Solomon uses the lash again, but this time with more authority. What choice does he have?