Solomon Northup
Free-born African American kidnapped by slave-traders · United States · On the map · Musicians · Lived 1808 to 1864 · aged 56
Solomon Northup was an American abolitionist and the primary author of the memoir Twelve Years a Slave. A free-born American of mixed race from New York, he was the son of a freed slave and a free woman of color. Northup was a professional violinist, farmer, and landowner in Washington County, New York.
Solomon Northup is read about 943 times a day, in 29 languages.
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Old Fort House is a historic house located in the town of Fort Edward, New York. The house, the oldest house in Washington County, New York, is operated as a local history museum. Solomon Northup lived in Fort Edward as a child, he was married there, and he started his family in the town.
Solomon Northup returning home to his family, Twelve Years a Slave (1853), engraved by Nathaniel Orr, published by Frederick M. Coffin
Slave trader James H. Birch offers "cash for negroes" to resell to the Louisiana market (Daily National Intelligencer, Washington, D. C., December 19, 1840)![Record of sale from Theophilus Freeman to William Prince Ford of enslaved Harry, Platt (Solomon Northup) and Dradey (Eliza), June 23, 1841.[65]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d4/Slave_Sale_Record_%28cropped%29.jpg/1280px-Slave_Sale_Record_%28cropped%29.jpg)
Record of sale from Theophilus Freeman to William Prince Ford of enslaved Harry, Platt (Solomon Northup) and Dradey (Eliza), June 23, 1841.[65]
"Chapin rescues Solomon from hanging", illustration from Twelve Years A Slave (1853)
Restored Edwin Epps House, a plantation house. Now located on the Louisiana State University of Alexandria campus
"Scene of the Slave Pen in Washington" after imploring that he was a free man, an illustration from Twelve Years A Slave (1853)About this person
In 1841, he was offered a traveling musician's job and went to Washington, D.C. ; there, he was drugged and kidnapped into slavery. He was shipped to New Orleans on April 24, 1841 by James H. Birch aboard the Brig Orleans from Richmond, VA. Northup was purchased by a planter and held as a slave for nearly twelve years in the Red River region of Louisiana; mostly in Avoyelles Parish. He remained enslaved until he met Samuel Bass, a Canadian working on his plantation who helped get word to New York, where state law provided aid to free New York citizens who had been kidnapped and sold into slavery. His family and friends enlisted the aid of the governor of New York, Washington Hunt, and Northup regained his freedom on January 3, 1853.
