Twelve Years a Slave, Chapter 17 summary
Chapter 17 of 24 · 14 min to read the chapter
In Chapter 17, Wiley escapes repeated beatings but returns after capture, while the narrator describes other fugitives and the dangers surrounding every attempt at freedom. Accounts of secret assistance, fatal pursuit, and Lew Cheney’s betrayal lead into the narrator’s rejection of armed revolt and insistence that enslaved people understand their oppression.
What happens
- Patrollers catch Wiley without a pass, and repeated beatings by Epps drive him to escape.
- After about three weeks, Wiley returns through Joseph B. Roberts’s help, but Epps ignores Roberts’s request for mercy.
- The narrator describes controlling hunting dogs and unknowingly helping capture hungry fugitives who try to take his food.
- Augustus dies after dogs attack him, while Nelly briefly hides nearby and Celeste survives through the narrator’s help.
- The narrator recounts how Lew Cheney betrays a planned flight to Mexico, triggering executions of fugitives and innocent people.
- He explains his opposition to armed revolt while affirming enslaved people’s anger and desire for freedom.
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In this chapter
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Why does Joseph B. Roberts help Wiley leave jail?
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