Considering various parts of colonial life—cities and farms, citizen's rights, crime and punishment, social class, education, and african american life—how does each compare with life in america today?

We can start the comparison by life on farms which were found commonly in colonial life whereas the situation has changed in cities of America today, we find more cities than farms. Another aspect was the rights of people which were not the same in colonies; white privilege was prominent as opposed to today’s America where everyone has the same rights. Criminal punishments were of various kinds like jail, fine, branding and whips etc as opposed to today’s where jail, death and  fine are primary punishments. Social system has not changed on the whole except the slaves part which is no more existing in today’s America. Now everyone has to attend school as opposed to the colonial times when various colonies had various rules, for example New England colonies were required to attend, middle colonies had some public schools but not as today and finally the Southern colonies had parents as teachers. 

the answer is solomon northrup. he was a free-born african american, abolitionist and professional violinist that was drugged, kidnapped and sold as slave in 1841 and remained in captivity until 1853 where he regained his freedom with the of the then-governor of new york, washington hunt. he wrote and published his memoirs "twelve years a slave" in 1853, and in this text, he tells the story of his escape thru one of louisiana's swamps (the great pacoudrie swamp) in which he ended up covered in green slime from crossing the surface of the dead water.