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

Epps confronts Solomon about the letter after Armsby betrays him; Solomon denies it and persuades Epps that Armsby invented the story to get an overseer job.

Scene 194 of 211 · ≈ 2 min on screen · Act two

Epps
Solomon

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 2:02 into a 2:22 film

The story so farBefore scene 194

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 191
Solomon lies awake after committing himself to the letter plan, knowing he cannot turn back.
Scene 192
While Solomon picks cotton, Epps watches him beside Armsby; the two men’s prolonged conversation makes Solomon uneasy.
Scene 193
Epps enters the sleeping quarters with his whip and silently orders Solomon to follow him outside.
Scene 194
This scene

194EXT. MASTER EPPS'S PLANTATION/SLAVE SHACK - CONTINUOUS

Solomon comes out into the dark. Nearly hidden in the shadows is a bitter Epps. Despite the lack of light, Epps's malevolence is quite clear. His whip twisting in his hand.

EPPS

Well, boy. I understand I've got

a larned nigger that writes

letters and tries to get white

fellows to mail 'em.

Solomon, hardly missing a beat, plays this off.

SOLOMON

Don't know nothing about it,

Master Epps. Don't know nothing

about it, sir.

EPPS

Yah wasn't over with Armsby night

before last?

SOLOMON

No, master.

EPPS

Hav'nt yah asked that fella to

mail a letter fer yah at

Marksville?

Without overplaying things, Solomon gets real slick.

SOLOMON

Why, Lord, master, I never spoke

but three words to him in all my

life. I don't know what you mean.

EPPS

Well, Armsby tol' me today the

devil was among my niggers. That

I had one that needed close

watchin' or he would run away.

When I axed him why, he said you

come over to him and waked him up

in the middle of the night and

wanted him to carry a letter to

Marksville. What have yah got to

say to that?

SOLOMON

All I have to say, master, is all

that need be said. There is no

truth in it. How could I write a

letter without ink or paper?

There is nobody I want to write to

'cause I hain't got no friends

living as I know of. That Armsby