Northup, Solomon (1807 or 1808-1863?), was a free-born African American from New York . He was kidnapped in 1841 and sold into slavery in Louisiana . He regained his freedom in 1853. Northup told about his experience in a memoir, Twelve Years a Slave (1853).
Northup claimed he was born on July 10, 1808, but historians now believe the year was 1807. He was born in what is now Minerva, Essex County, in the Adirondack Mountains. Northup’s father, Mintus, a former slave, later moved the family to neighboring Washington County. The family eventually settled in the village of Fort Edward, on the Hudson River.
Northup married Anne Hampton in 1828, according to historical records. The couple later had two daughters and a son. In 1830, Solomon and Anne established a farm in Kingsbury. In 1834, the family moved to nearby Saratoga Springs, Saratoga County, for its employment opportunities. There, Anne worked as a cook at a hotel. Solomon worked as a violinist at several hotels, as well as at other jobs. In 1841, two white men lured Northup to Washington, D.C., with the promise of work as a violinist with a circus. Instead, they drugged him and took him to New Orleans , where he was renamed Platt to hide his identity.
While Northup was being held in New Orleans, he was beaten for declaring his free status. He considered escaping, but he knew that the risk of getting caught was too high. Northup also tried to let his family and friends know what had happened to him. However, the legal systems governing slavery made this information difficult and dangerous to communicate.
Northup was first sold to William Prince Ford, who owned a sawmill at Bayou Boeuf in Avoyelles Parish, Lousiana. About a year later, Ford sold Northup to John M. Tibault, who used him for carpentry work.
In 1843, Tibault sold Northup to Edwin Epps (sometimes spelled Eppes), a cotton plantation owner at Bayou Boeuf. Epps was a cruel slavemaster who frequently whipped slaves. In 1852, Samuel Bass, an itinerant (traveling) carpenter and abolitionist from Canada, came to work at the plantation. Northup befriended Bass and told him of his free status. Bass contacted friends of Northup in Saratoga Springs. Henry B. Northup, a lawyer who was the great-nephew of Mintus’s former slavemaster, Captain Henry Northup, learned of Solomon’s enslavement. Mintus had adopted Northup as his last name after Captain Northup granted him his freedom. Henry B. Northup traveled to Bayou Boeuf and helped to get Solomon released in 1853. Solomon Northup soon returned to New York, where he was reunited with his family.
After the publication of his memoir later that year, Northup embarked on a speaking tour supported by abolitionists. He also became involved in the underground railroad . The underground railroad was a system that helped slaves escape from the southern United States to the northern free states, Canada, and other slave-free places during the mid-1800’s. Northup later disappeared from public life. He is believed to have died around 1863, or possibly as late as 1875.
Northup’s memoir was adapted as a television movie titled Solomon Northup’s Odyssey in 1984. In 2013, the memoir was adapted as a major motion picture called 12 Years a Slave.
See also Underground railroad .
