12 Years a Slave

Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup - Special Illustrated Edition

The memorable memoir Twelve Years a Slave is the true story of Solomon Northup, born a freeman in New York, but kidnaped in Washington D.C. and sold into slavery. Northup was kept in bondage for 12 years, until being able to write to friends and family in New York, who finally secured his release.

Solomon Northup's memoir Twelve Years a Slave provides extensive details about the slave markets in Washington D.C. and New Orleans, the horrors of life on the plantations, and the inhumane treatment of the slaves, as well as describing at extent the cotton and sugar cultivation on main plantations in Louisiana.

Solomon Northup’s slave narrative Twelve Years a Slave was rediscovered in the 1960's, after being forgotten for about 100 years.

Written by a man who had lived as a free man for more than thirty years before being forced into slavery, Twelve Years a Slave memoir was put on paper one year after Solomon Northup’s release, soon after Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Solomon Northup’s true story was taken by abolitionist groups as an instrument to support the fight against slavery.

In 2013, Twelve Years a Slave, by Solomon Northup was adapted into a motion picture entitled 12 Years a Slave, directed by Steve McQueen and produced by Brad Pitt, who also played a supporting role in the movie. 12 Years a Slave won the Oscar for Best Motion Picture.