Douglas' accounts of unjust punishments for individuals who killed slaves resemble some of the same sentiments when talking about police brutality today: “I speak knowingly when I say this, that killing a slave, or any black person, in Talbot [sic] county, Maryland, is not treated as a crime, either by the courts or by the community. Mr. Thomas Lanman, of St. Michael's, killed two slaves, one of whom he killed with a hatchet, blowing out his brains. He boasted that he had committed a terrible and bloody act. I heard him do it while laughing[…]” (Douglass, page 21). 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013), a modern film based on the written short story 12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, conveyed the brutal conditions of blacks during the time of slavery. He first finds himself on a plantation where he is nearly hanged to death for rejecting his overseer. For hours he is left hanging from a tree with nothing to save his life but his toes on a stool beneath him in front of other slaves. Northup is then sold and sent to another plantation with a master known for his harsh treatment of slaves. It is here that he witnesses a fellow slave, Patsey, being sexually abused by the master and jealously beaten by his wife. He is then forced to beat and watch Patsey being beaten unconscious by their master in front of the plantation for visiting another plantation to get soap when his wife neglects to give him some. In both examples harsh punishments were meted out