12 Years a Slave starts out in New York state (where Solomon is living as a free man), with a brief stint in Washington, D.C. (where he is kidnapped), and ultimately lands in the Red River region of Louisiana (where he is enslaved for 12 years). Near the end of the memoir, Solomon ends up reversing his journey, spending time in Washington, D.C. to fight his case in court before ending up back in New York, reunited with his family.
The bulk of the memoir takes place during the 12 years that Solomon is enslaved, from March 1841 to January 1853. This was an important moment in U.S. history—slavery had already been abolished in the Northern states but was still legal (and heavily supported) in the South, as enslaved labor fueled the Southern economy.
For Northern free Black people like Solomon who took the risk of venturing south to places like Washington, D.C., free papers alone protected them from being forced into slavery in the South. When Solomon finds himself chained in a slave pen after being kidnapped, one of the first things he checks for are his free papers, and he's devastated to find them gone. The importance of free papers in this moment in history also comes across later in the book, when Solomon describes how the documents would protect Bass—the white man helping him to free himself from enslavement:
A great many suggestions were now made, and a great deal of conversation took place between us, as to the most safe and proper course to pursue on receipt of the free papers. They would stand between him and harm, in case we were overtaken and arrested leaving the country altogether.
Because of the tenuous nature of freedom for Black Americans in the antebellum U.S., many free people like Solomon were kidnapped and intentionally sold into slavery, especially in Washington, D.C., which acted as something of a meeting ground between the North and the South. This issue was taken up by members of the Abolitionist movement—a social movement made up of Black and white people alike who believed that slavery should be abolished. Some members of the Abolitionist movement were inspired to join due to the Second Great Awakening, a religious revival that tied slavery to sin and religious immorality. Despite abolitionists’ best efforts, it wouldn’t be until 10 years after Solomon published 12 Years a Slave that slavery would be finally be abolished and all Black people in the U.S. would be free.
