User blog comment:Grundley/PG Proposal: Solomon Northup/@comment-3999269-20191003201622/@comment-2059440-20191003202403

personally I don't see the Tibeats beatdown as assault, John made it *very* clear he was going to kill Solomon or whip him severely for no reason whatsoever and Solomon repeatedly tried to appese Tibeats, it may of been violent but Solomon was, in essence, protecting himself.. yes, he probably did have anger too but this was an *exceptional* case.. Solomon did everything in his power to make peace with Tibeats despite being treated like a subhuman and John was clearly having none of it.. all John wanted was to kill Solomon or make him suffer, because John hated the fact Solomon was intelligent while John was rather uneducated.

the mother scene is the more controversial one but I feel Solomon was trying to help her, the two had a heated argument for sure but it was due to two different philosophies born of (again) extreme circumstances: Solomon believed that he could work with his captives to earn freedom and felt people giving into despair etc simply ensured they'd remain captive forever, the mother however is much more of the belief that the system is impossible to work with and Solomon was trying a losing battle.. both of them had points and both were passionate but I don't think either were being deliberately cruel or bullying.