Rediscovered in the 1960s and now the inspiration for a major motion picture, Northup’s poignant narrative gives readers an invaluable glimpse into a shameful chapter of American history. With its eloquent depiction of life before and after bondage, Twelve Years a Slave was a unique and effective entry into the national debate over slavery. Published shortly after Harriet Beecher Stowe’s abolitionist classic Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Northup’s memoir became a bestseller in 1853. His account of those years is a shocking, unforgettable portrait of America’s most insidious historical institution as told by a man who experienced it firsthand. He spent the next twelve years on plantations in Louisiana, enduring backbreaking labor, unimaginable violence, and inhumane treatment at the hands of cruel masters, until a kind stranger helped to win his release. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at Title: 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. His father Mintus was a slave but was freed following the death of his.

Northup was born a free person of colour in 1807 or 1808 in Upstate New York. Northup’s story, entitled Twelve Years a Slave, was published in 1853. In Washington, DC, Northup was drugged, kidnapped, and sold into slavery. Twelve years after being abducted and sold into slavery, Solomon Northup was legally granted his freedom on 4 January 1853.

In the spring of 1841, he was offered a job: a short-term, lucrative engagement as a violinist in a traveling circus. The son of a freed slave, Solomon Northup lived the first thirty years of his life as a free man in upstate New York. The harrowing true story that inspired the critically acclaimed film.

Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup