There's not a single “bad guy” in this movie. There's only people doing their jobs, making their livings the way they know how to in the slave economy. So regardless of how alike a slave owner is of you and I, by participating in the slave economy, the system corrupts them. It's not the people that's the problem, it's the system. A corrupt system cannot be fixed by “good apples” ie educated slave owners who treat their slaves kindly and humanely. This movie makes this important point very clear.
PS I hate how slave owners are portrayed in 12 Years A Slave. As if all the slave owners are sadistic psychopath, and oh the lives of black americans would be so great if only all the slave owners treat their properties nicely. No! The slave owners' human beings just like you and I! But the point is no matter how nice of a person they might be, they live in a fucked up system that requires them to act injusticely in the name of the southern law.
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