Solomon Northup

Solomon Northup (born July 10, 1807, Schroon [now Minerva], New York, U.S.—died after 1857) was an American farmer, labourer, and musician whose experience of being kidnapped and sold into slavery was the basis for his book 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 (1853).

Northup was born a free person of colour in what is now Minerva, New York. Though he claimed to have been born in July 1808 in Twelve Years a Slave, a later deposition in which he specified his birth date and age indicates that he was likely born a year earlier. His father, Mintus, had been born into slavery but was freed following the death of his master, Capt. Henry Northup, whose will contained the stipulation that his slaves be manumitted. Mintus eventually acquired his own farm and enough land to fulfill the property ownership requirement that African Americans faced in order to vote. Solomon received some education and worked on his family’s farm as a child.He married Anne Hampton in 1828. In 1834, after selling their farm, the couple moved to Saratoga Springs, New York, where they worked odd jobs to support their three children. Northup also established a reputation as a talented fiddler.

In March 1841 he was recruited by two men who claimed to be circus performers and offered him money to join their act as a fiddler, traveling south from New York. Upon their arrival in Washington, D.C., in early April, Northup was drugged, lost consciousness, and awoke to find himself in shackles in an underground cell. He was conveyed to Richmond, Virginia, and then delivered by ship to New Orleans, where in June he was sold at a slave market under the name Platt Hamilton. He spent the ensuing 12 years in slavery in the Bayou Boeuf plantation region of central Louisiana’s Red River valley.

Northup was owned first by William Prince Ford, whom he praised for his kindness. Ford was, however, forced by financial exigency to sell him to the brutal John M. Tibaut (referred to as John M. Tibeats in 12 Years a Slave) in 1842. (Ford retained 40 percent ownership of him, as the sale was for the repayment of a debt not judged to be worth as much as Northup.) Northup was Tibaut’s only slave. When Tibaut attempted to whip him, Northup resisted and prevailed in the ensuing fight. Infuriated, Tibaut sought help from neighbouring overseers in attempting to lynch Northup, who was rescued by Ford’s overseer, Anderson Chafin (referred to as Chapin in 12 Years a Slave). Northup also prevailed in a second fight and fled to the protection of Ford, who then demanded that Tibaut sell or lease him.

In April 1843 Northup was sold by Ford and Tibaut to Edwin Epps, under whose ownership he remained for the next decade. Epps used Northup both as an artisan slave and as a field hand, occasionally leasing him out to sugar planters and processors. Throughout this time, Northup was often a “driver” in charge of other slaves. Epps, who was proud of his expertise with a lash, had a sadistic streak. Northup contrived to escape several times during that period but was unsuccessful. It was not until an abolitionist carpenter from Canada named Samuel Bass visited Epps’s farm in June 1852 that Northup was able to arrange to have letters delivered to friends in New York to alert them of his situation and set in motion his rescue. One letter was forwarded to Anne Northup, who enlisted the help of Henry B. Northup, a lifelong friend of Solomon and the grandnephew of the person who had manumitted Mintus.

Henry mobilized widespread support for Solomon among the leading citizens of Sandy Hill (now Hudson Falls) and Fort Edward, New York, and, under an 1840 statute designed to rescue New York citizens sold into slavery, in November 1852 Gov. Washington Hunt made him an agent of the State of New York to find Solomon. Armed with this array of documentation, along with letters from a senator and a Supreme Court justice, Henry traveled to Louisiana and hired local counsel. With the help of Bass, they were able to locate Solomon, and his freedom was legally obtained on January 4, 1853.

Northup was reunited with his family later that month. His rescue was widely publicized. Stopping in Washington, D.C., en route to New York, he brought charges against James H. Birch (referred to as James H. Burch in Northup’s narrative), the slave dealer who had incarcerated him. Because of his race, though, he was not permitted to testify, and the case was dismissed after two other slave dealers testified on behalf of Birch. That same year, together with local writer David Wilson, Northup penned his memoir, Twelve Years a Slave. The book sold some 30,000 copies in the ensuing three years, and Northup used the proceeds to purchase property in upstate New York, where he lived with his family.

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From 1853 to 1857 Northup, now a national celebrity, engaged in extensive speaking tours. As a result of the story’s widespread notoriety, the New York kidnappers were identified, arrested, and indicted in 1854. After much legal maneuvering, the case reached the state supreme court and then the court of appeals, but the charges were ultimately dismissed in May 1857. Northup subsequently disappeared from public view and, the best evidence indicates, joined the Underground Railroad and spent several years in New England helping escaped slaves reach Canada. The time and circumstances of his death, as well as his place of burial, are unknown. His last public appearance was in Streetsville, Ontario, Canada, in August 1857. He was not accounted for in the U.S. census of 1860 and almost certainly predeceased Anne, who died in 1876.

Twelve Years a Slave remains one of the most important American slave narratives. It is a valuable source of information regarding the daily lives of slaves in central Louisiana, including the Christmas celebratory practices in slave culture. Its shrewd but nonpolemical judgments of people described in the narrative have been commented on from the time of the book’s publication.

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Twelve Years a Slave went out of print before the turn of the century. However, Louisiana researchers Sue Eakin and Joseph Logsdon spent several decades researching Northup’s life before, in 1968, releasing an annotated reprint that substantiated many of his claims. An annual celebration known as Solomon Northup Day was established in Saratoga Springs in 1999. Northup’s memoir also provided the basis for director Gordon Parks’s television docudrama Solomon Northup’s Odyssey (1984) and director Steve McQueen’s film 12 Years a Slave (2013).