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

By candlelight, Solomon gives Bass names and addresses in Saratoga; Bass agrees to post the letters at Marksville and check for replies.

Scene 206 of 211 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act three

Solomon
Bass

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 2:14 into a 2:22 film

The story so farBefore scene 206

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.
Scenes 124–199
Under Epps, Solomon works and watches for a route home; Armsby betrays his letter attempt, and Patsey’s punishment leaves him without a safe path out.
Just before
Scene 203
Solomon tells Bass he has been enslaved for nearly eleven years and asks him to contact his northern friends; Bass agrees to help but warns of the danger and need for secrecy.
Scene 204
Solomon steals a candle and matches from the kitchen.
Scene 205
Solomon waits nervously with a lit candle by the river until Bass arrives.
Scene 206
This scene

206EXT. MASTER EPPS'S PLANTATION - LATER

By the light of the candle Bass, armed with paper and a writing instrument, writes as Solomon gives him names.

SOLOMON

...William Perry, Cephas Parker

and Judge Marvin, all of Saratoga

Springs, Saratoga county, New

York. I had been employed by the

later in the United States Hotel,

and had transacted business with

the former a considerable extent,

and trust that at least one of

them would be still living at that

place.

BASS

It is so many years since you left

Saratoga. All these men may be

dead, or may have removed. You

say you obtained papers at the

Custom House in New York.

Probably there is a record of them

there. And I think it would be

well to write and ascertain. I

will take the letters to

Marksville and post them from

there. After that, I must travel.

I will return to Marksville in ten

week's time. I will enquire then

about responses before returning

here.

They sit on the banks quietly for a time as they absorb the enormity of their undertaking. Finally, from Solomon, a hint of hopeful emotion creeps forth though it is dispensed in a very matter-of-fact fashion.

SOLOMON

It would be unspeakable happiness

to clasp my wife and family again.

BLACK