Twelve Years a Slave

Solomon Northup

Now a major motion picture nominated for nine Academy Awards. Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853. Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup is a memoir of a black man who was born free in New York state but kidnapped, sold into slavery and kept in bondage for 12 years in Louisiana before the American Civil War. He provided details of slave markets in Washington, DC, as well as describing at length cotton cultivation on major plantations in Louisiana.

Solomon Northup

Twelve Years a Slave

It is a singular coincidence, that Solomon Northup was carried to a plantation in the Red River country – that same region where the scene of Uncle Tom’s captivity was laid – and his account of this plantation, and the mode of life there, and some incidents which he describes, form a striking parallel to that history.

    KEY TO UNCLE TOM’S CABIN

TO

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE

WHOSE NAME,

THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, IS IDENTIFIED WITH THE

GREAT REFORM:

THIS NARRATIVE, AFFORDING ANOTHER

Hey to Uncle Tom’s Cabin,

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED

“Such dupes are men to custom, and so prone

To reverenco what is ancient, and can plead

A course of long observance for its use,

That even servitude, the worst of ills,

Because delivered down from sire to son,

Is kept and guarded as a sacred thing.

But is it fit, or can it bear the shock

Of rational discussion, that a man

Compounded and made up, like other men,

Of elements tumultuous, in whom lust

And folly in as ample measure meet,

As in the bosom of the slave he rules,

Should be a despot absolute, and boast

Himself the only freeman of his land? ”

В В В В COWPER

EDITOR’S PREFACE

When the editor commenced the preparation of the following narrative, he did not suppose it would reach the size of this volume. In order, however, to present all the facts which have been communicated to him, it has seemed necessary to extend it to its present length.

Many of the statements contained in the following pages are corroborated by abundant evidence – others rest entirely upon Solomon’s assertion. That he has adhered strictly to the truth, the editor, at least, who has had an opportunity of detecting any contradiction or discrepancy in his statements, is well satisfied. He has invariably repeated the same story without deviating in the slightest particular, and has also carefully perused the manuscript, dictating an alteration wherever the most trivial inaccuracy has appeared.

It was Solomon’s fortune, during his captivity, to be owned by several masters. The treatment he received while at the “Pine Woods” shows that among slaveholders there are men of humanity as well as of cruelty. Some of them are spoken of with emotions of gratitude – others in a spirit of bitterness. It is believed that the following account of his experience on Bayou Boeuf presents a correct picture of Slavery, in all its lights and shadows, as it now exists in that locality. Unbiased, as he conceives, by any prepossessions or prejudices, the only object of the editor has been to give a faithful history of Solomon Northup’s life, as he received it from his lips.

In the accomplishment of that object, he trusts he has succeeded, notwithstanding the numerous faults of style and of expression it may be found to contain.

В В В В DAVID WILSON.

WHITEHALL, N. Y., May, 1853.

I

Introductory – Ancestry – The Northup Family – Birth and Parentage – Mintus Northup – Marriage with Anne Hampton – Good Resolutions – Champlain Canal – Rafting Excursion to Canada – Farming – The Violin – Cooking – Removal to Saratoga – Parker and Perry – Slaves – and Slavery – The Children – The Beginning of Sorrow

Having been born a freeman, and for more than thirty years enjoyed the blessings of liberty in a free State – and having at the