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

On the Sabbath, Epps cannot find Patsey and whips the other slaves for not knowing where she went, then collapses when they remain silent.

Scene 196 of 211 · ≈ 1 min on screen · First scene of act three

Epps
Phebe

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 2:04 into a 2:22 film

The story so farBefore scene 196

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 193
Epps enters the sleeping quarters with his whip and silently orders Solomon to follow him outside.
Scene 194
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 195
Alone by a small fire, Solomon burns the letter he had hoped would secure his freedom.
Scene 196
This scene

196EXT. MASTER EPPS'S PLANTATION - DAY

It's the Sabbath. The slaves are left to themselves to do their own chores. At the moment they are down by the river washing their clothes in the water. Missing from the field of labor is Patsey, for whom Epps hollers.

EPPS

Patsey... Patsey!

Epps comes down to the bank and asks of the slaves:

EPPS (CONT'D)

Where is she? Where is Patsey?

No one answers.

EPPS (CONT'D)

Talk, Damn you!

PHEBE

We have no knowledge of her,

Massa.

EPPS

The hell you don't! You know

where she is! She run off, ain't

she? She's escaped, and you

miserable black dogs stand like

the deef and dumb. My best cotton

picking nigger! My best. I'd

give yah all up for her. Where

she gone?

Not a word spoken. Epps wades in and among the slaves and begins to whip at them recklessly.

EPPS (CONT'D)

Speak! Speak!

The slaves say nothing. There is nothing for them to say. They don't know where she is. Eventually Epps slows, then stops. He drops down in great sorrow.

EPPS (CONT'D)

She run off... Pats run off.