Hughes & Evans/The Singing Voice in Contemporary Cinema, 4. Singing a Life in Bondage: Black Vocality and Subjectivity in 12 Years a Slave

This chapter explores the role of singing voice in defining the condition of “free slave” within Steve McQueen’s 2013 12 Years a Slave. While comparing the movie to historical documentation of black American vocal expressions, it emphasizes how they ultimately represent - both in the documentation and in the movie - the unbroken search for a safe space through the delivery of vocal sounds.