Solomon Northup

Solomon Northup was born in 1808 in Minerva, New York, where he grew up as a free man. His father, Mintus, was a slave but was freed following his master’s death. As a free man, Solomon lived as a farmer, a violinist, a husband to Anne Hampton, and a father to their three children, Elizabeth, Margaret, and Alonzo. Solomon and Anne eventually moved to Saratoga Springs, where they both worked several jobs. In 1841, Solomon met two men who recruited Solomon to join their circus as a fiddle player. Solomon was in need of work, so he agreed and traveled with the men from New York to Washington D.C. The circus turned out to be a sham, and upon his arrival in Washington D.C., Solomon was kidnapped, drugged, beaten, and sold into slavery. He spent the next twelve years of his life enduring the horrors of slavery in Central Louisiana—an experience he later recorded in his memoir, 12 Years a Slave. He was eventually freed from slavery with the help of two men: Samuel Bass, who was a Canadian carpenter visiting the plantation where Solomon was enslaved, and a lawyer named Henry B. Northup, who was a friend of Solomon and the grandnephew of the man who freed Solomon’s father many years prior. Solomon was officially freed on January 4, 1853. That same year, with help from a writer named David Wilson, Solomon published his experiences in 12 Years a Slave, which became a cornerstone text of the abolitionist movement. Solomon spent several years traveling for speaking engagements but later disappeared from the public eye, due to his work helping slaves escape to Canada via the Underground Railroad. Because he disappeared from the public eye, Solomon’s date and place of death is unknown.