Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, from a Cotton Plantation near the Red River in Louisiana
Solomon Northup
Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, from a Cotton Plantation near the Red River in Louisiana
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"Twelve Years a Slave" by Solomon Northup is a memoir published in 1853. Northup, a free black man and musician from New York, recounts how he was deceived, kidnapped, and sold into slavery in the Deep South. His narrative details twelve years of bondage on Louisiana plantations, documenting the brutal realities of slavery—from slave markets to plantation life—before finally securing his freedom. Published shortly after "Uncle Tom's Cabin," this firsthand account became a bestseller with 30,000 copies sold.
About the book
Published in 1853, Twelve Years a Slave is Solomon Northup's account of his own kidnapping and enslavement. Northup was a free Black man, a husband, father and violinist living in Saratoga Springs, New York, when he was lured to Washington in 1841, drugged, and sold into slavery in the South. He spent the following twelve years on plantations in Louisiana, and his narrative records the work of cotton and sugar cultivation, the cruelty and occasional decency of those who held him, and the lives of the people enslaved alongside him. Written with the help of the editor David Wilson and published within months of his rescue, it was a significant contribution to the case against slavery.
Characters
Solomon Northup — Narrator
A free Black man from New York, a carpenter and violinist, kidnapped and sold into slavery.
James H. Burch — Slave trader
The Washington dealer who holds Northup and ships him south.
William Ford — First owner
A Louisiana planter and preacher whom Northup remembers as kind.
John M. Tibeats — Carpenter
A violent, resentful carpenter who comes to own Northup.
Edwin Epps — Cotton planter
The brutal planter on whose plantation Northup spends most of his years in slavery.
Mistress Epps — Epps’s wife
Edwin Epps’s wife, whose jealousy adds to the suffering on the plantation.
Patsey — Enslaved woman
A young woman on the Epps plantation, the fastest cotton picker there.
Samuel Bass — Carpenter
A Canadian carpenter who speaks openly against slavery.