Solomon Northup
Solomon Northup (July 10, c. 1808 – c. 1863)[b] was an American abolitionist. He wrote the memoir Twelve Years a Slave. He was born as a free African American. He was a farmer and a professional violinist. He owned land in Washington County, New York.
Solomon Northup | |
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.jpg) Engraving from his autobiography | |
| Born | Solomon Northup[a] July 10, c. 1808 Minerva, New York, U.S. |
| Died | c. 1863 (aged 55–56) |
| Occupation | Author
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| Known for | Writing Twelve Years a Slave |
| Signature | |
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Kidnapping
changeIn 1841, he was offered a traveling musician's job. He went to Washington, D.C., where slavery was legal. He was drugged, kidnapped, and sold as a slave.[1][2] He was taken to New Orleans and was a slave for 12 years in Louisiana.[3]
He remained a slave until he met Samuel Bass, a Canadian working on his plantation who helped send letters to New York. New York state law helped New York citizens who had been kidnapped and sold into slavery. His family and friends got help from the Governor of New York, Washington Hunt, and Northup got his freedom again on January 3, 1853.
Speaker
changeNorthup traveled through the United States making speeches about what happened to him. He did this because he wanted voters to end slavery. Northup wrote his speeches down as a book, 12 Years a Slave, and Derby published it in 1853. Northup's book was published one year after Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. By then, people were saying that surely Beecher Stowe had only made up how bad slavery was. Northup dedicated the book to Beecher Stowe. He and Derby both said 12 Years a Slave helped prove that Beecher Stowe had not lied about slavery being bad. They called it "Another Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin."[4][5]
Death
changeNorthup is believed to have died in 1863 as that was when he was last seen or heard of.[6][7]
References
change- ↑ Quan, Douglas (May 24, 2019). "Unravelling the lives of the man who spent 12 years a slave – and the Canadian who saved him". National Post. Retrieved 2021-06-24.
- ↑ Fiske, David. "How Solomon Northup was kidnapped and sold into slavery". National Museums Liverpool. Retrieved 2021-06-25.
- ↑ Gates, Henry Louis, Jr (2013-11-01). "'12 Years a Slave': Trek From Slave to Screen". PBS. Retrieved 2021-06-25.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ↑ Heidi Kim (February 17, 2014). "How Twelve Years a Slave was made, 150 years before "12 Years a Slave"". Law Review of Books. Retrieved June 2, 2021.
- ↑ Sarah Churchwell (January 10, 2014). "12 Years a Slave: the book behind the film". Guardian. Retrieved June 2, 2021.
- ↑ "Solomon Northup". Biography. Retrieved June 27, 2022.
- ↑ "Solomon Northup, b. 1808". Docsouth. Retrieved June 27, 2022.
Notes
changeMore reading
change- Lester, Julius (1968). To Be a Slave. New York. pp. 39–58. ISBN 9780590424608.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link), Newbery Honor, ages 10 and up - 12 Years a Slave
Other websites
change- Works by or about Solomon Northup at Internet Archive
- Works by Solomon Northup at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- The Solomon Northup Trail, LSU's Acadiana Historical project: maps and descriptions of sites from Northup's memoir, based on Eakin's and Logsdon's 1968 research.
- Twelve Years a Slave: Analyzing Slave Narratives, National Endowment for the Humanities EDSITEment lesson plan
- Solomon Northup's Odyssey at the Internet Movie Database
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