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Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup (1853), with illustrations and appendix, is a memoir and slave narrative by Solomon Northup, as told to and edited by David Wilson. Northup, a black man who was born free in New York, details his kidnapping in Washington, D.C. and subsequent sale into slavery. After having been kept in bondage for 12 years in Louisiana by various masters, Northup was able to write to friends and family in New York, who were able to secure his release. Northup's account provides extensive details on the slave markets in Washington, D.C. and New Orleans, as well as describing at length cotton and sugar cultivation on major plantations in Louisiana. About Northup: Solomon Northup was a free-born African American from New York, the son of a freed slave. A farmer and violinist, he owned a property in Hebron. In 1841 he was kidnapped by slave-traders, having been enticed with a job offer as a violinist. When he accompanied his supposed employers to Washington, DC, they drugged him and sold him as a slave. He was shipped to New Orleans where he was sold to a plantation owner in Louisiana. He was held in the Red River region of Louisiana by several different owners for 12 years, during which time his friends and family had no word of him. He made repeated attempts to escape and get messages out of the plantation. Eventually he got news to his family, who contacted friends and enlisted the Governor of New York, Washington Hunt, to his cause. He regained his freedom in January 1853 and returned to his family in New York. Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup is a lesser known novel of its time. Certainly, lesser know than Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Both novels were published within the decade before the American Civil War; however, Stowe's novel, though a fictional story of slavery, was received with high praise throughout the world and translated into over 37 languages. Perhaps it was when Stowe visited Abraham Lincoln at the White House in December 1862, and Lincoln reportedly greeted her by saying, Is this the little woman who made this great war? that her novel gained its popularity. Both novels are worthy of reading, but only one is a narrative of a true, and in the words of Solomon Northup, .. .a candid and truthful statement of facts: ...without exaggeration. Now a major motion picture, Solomon Northup's inspiring tale of triumph over adversity is receiving the attention it deserves. The motion picture, directed by Steve McQueen and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, Lupita Nyong'o, Sarah Paulson, Brad Pitt, Alfre Woodard, and Quvenzhane Wallis, has been nominated for nine Academy Awards. Whether you have seen the motion picture, or not, you will definitely be moved by this narrative of Solomon Northup.

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Solomon Northup was a free-born African American from New York, the son of a freed slave. A farmer and violinist, he owned a property in Hebron. In 1841 he was kidnapped by slave-traders, having been enticed with a job offer as a violinist. When he accompanied his supposed employers to Washington, DC, they drugged him and sold him as a slave. He was shipped to New Orleans where he was sold to a plantation owner in Louisiana. He was held in the Red River region of Louisiana by several different owners for 12 years, during which time his friends and family had no word of him. He made repeated attempts to escape and get messages out of the plantation. Eventually he got news to his family, who contacted friends and enlisted the Governor of New York, Washington Hunt, to his cause. He regained his freedom in January 1853 and returned to his family in New York.

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