Solomon Northup
Author of Twelve Years a Slave
About the Author
Solomon Northup was a free-born African American from Saratoga Springs, New York. He is noted for having been kidnapped in 1841 when enticed with a job offer. When he accompanied his supposed employers to Washington, DC, they drugged him and sold him into slavery. From Washington, DC, he was show more transported to New Orleans where he was sold to a plantation owner from Rapides Parish, Louisiana. After 12 years in bondage, he regained his freedom in January 1853. Solomon Northup's memoir was reprinted several times later in the 19th century. An annotated version was published in 1968; the memoir was adapted and produced as a 2013 film by the same name by Steve McQueen, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor as Northup. Since 1999, Saratoga Springs, New York, has celebrated an annual Solomon Northup Day on the third Saturday in July. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Disambiguation Notice:
(ger) His name is generally written as S. NorthUp. Northrup or Northop are common misspellings, but they are not correct. See also: http://articles.latimes.com/2014/mar/04/nation/la-na-nn-solomon-northup-new-york-times-correction-20140304
Works by Solomon Northup
Twelve Years a Slave / Life of Frederick Douglass / Uncle Tom's Cabin / Life of Josiah Henson / Incidents in the Life… (2014) — Contributor — 59 copies
Oxford Bookworms Library: Level 2:: Twelve Years a Slave: Graded readers for secondary and adult learners (2018) 23 copies
Twelve Years a Slave: Including; Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (Wordsworth Classics of World Literature) (2015) 7 copies
Twelve Years A Slave: Original Edition - With Bonus of Uncle Tom's Cabin and Original illustrations (2014) 5 copies
Slave Narratives Collection (Golden Deer Classics): Twelve Years A Slave, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,… (2017) 2 copies
Twelve Years a Slave: Includes Six Additional Slave Narratives (Uncle Tom's Cabin, Frederick Douglass) (2014) 1 copy
Associated Works
American Antislavery Writings: Colonial Beginnings to Emancipation (2012) — Cover artist — 122 copies
Black Ink: Literary Legends on the Peril, Power and Pleasure of Reading and Writing (2018) — Contributor — 76 copies
I Was Born a Slave: An Anthology of Classic Slave Narratives: Volume Two, 1849-1866 (1999) — Contributor — 30 copies
Slave Narrative (Six Pack 1)- Uncle Tom's Cabin, Twelve Years A Slave, Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation,… (2015) — Contributor — 7 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Northup, Solomon
- Legal name
- Northup, Solomon
- Birthdate
- 1808-07-10
- Date of death
- 1863 (circa)
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Minerva, Essex County, New York, USA
- Places of residence
- New York, USA
- Occupations
- Carpenter
- Disambiguation notice
- His name is generally written as S. NorthUp. Northrup or Northop are common misspellings, but they are not correct. See also: http://articles.latimes.com/2014/mar/...
Members
Reviews
12 Years a Slave: A Memoir of Kidnap, Slavery and… by Solomon Northup
Don't be off-put by the Victorian language. We can blame Northup's editor for that. The book is a must-read document. I would have found the story too incredible to believe if not for the painstaking research of Clifford Brown, Rachel Seligman, and David Friske who drew on original sources for their biography, Solomon Northup: The Complete Story of the Author of Twelve Years A Slave.
It might be a challenging read for folks who prefer short, common words. It's a well told depiction of the culture of slavery in Louisiana, including interesting details of work on a cotton plantation.
It's difficult to sum up the twelve years of anguish and agony experienced by Solomon Northup when he was a free man living in New York, swindled, kidnapped, and enslaved - for twelve years. Written in the 1800s by Mr. Northrup and brought to our modern attention in 2013, Twelve Years a Slave is remarkably written, such good and proper King's English, so flowing and beautiful, his words, so savage and unconscionable his treatment. We should all take a lesson from Mr. Northup in his ability to lean into his situation yet never give up hope. He survived the worst of the worst and lived to reunite with his wife and children and tell the tale. We, humans, have done some awful things; slavery is one of the worst, and as a white American, I hang my head.… (more)
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Statistics
- Works
- 17
- Also by
- 4
- Members
- 4,195
- Popularity
- #5,995
- Rating
- 4.2
- Reviews
- 118
- ISBNs
- 394
- Languages
- 13