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

Solomon tells Celeste the letter is ready but has no safe way to mail it; she gives up her isolated refuge and returns to her master, leaving Solomon behind.

Scene 178 of 211 · ≈ 2 min on screen · Act two

Solomon
Celeste

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 1:53 into a 2:22 film

The story so farBefore scene 178

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 175
Solomon gathers bark from a white maple.
Scene 176
Solomon boils the maple bark in a tin cup over a fire.
Scene 177
By the cabin’s dying coals, Solomon tests the maple-bark liquid as ink and writes his letter to an old acquaintance.
Scene 178
This scene

178EXT. TURNER PLANTATION - NIGHT

Solomon sits with Celeste. He relates his news to her.

SOLOMON

I have my letter. I succeeded in

making ink by boiling white maple

bark. When all were asleep in the

cabin, by the light of the coals,

lying upon my plank couch I

managed to complete a somewhat

lengthy epistle. The letter is

directed to an old acquaintance at

Sandy Hill stating my condition

and urging him to take measures to

restore me to liberty.

CELESTE

Yah has your freedom then?

SOLOMON

All that remains is to contrive

measures by which the letter can

safely be deposited in the post

office.

When Celeste speaks she is quite melancholy.

CELESTE

I have resolved to return to my

Massa.

Solomon gives an unnerved look. This is not good news.

SOLOMON

Is it more food you need?

CELESTE

I live in fear.

SOLOMON

None will come after you in the

swamps.

CELESTE

It ain't the patrollers I scared

of... At all seasons the howling

of wild animals can be heard at

night along the border of the

swamps. At first their calls were

welcomin'. Dey too was free, 'n I

thought dey greeted me like a

sistah. Lately, dey cries have

turned horrifyin'.

SOLOMON

The solitude plays tricks. It's

your impression, nothing more.

CELESTE

Several times now they made me a

midnight call, awakening me from

what little sleep I take wit a