Solomon Northup’s Followers (791)

Solomon Northup

Born

in Saratoga Springs, New York, The United States

July 01, 1808

Died

January 01, 1864

Genre

Memoir, Biography, Nonfiction

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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 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; he was one of very few to do so in such cases. Held in the Red River region of Louisiana by several different owners, he got news to his family, who contacted friends and enlisted the New York governor in his cause. New York state had passed a law in 1840 to recover African-American reside 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 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; he was one of very few to do so in such cases. Held in the Red River region of Louisiana by several different owners, he got news to his family, who contacted friends and enlisted the New York governor in his cause. New York state had passed a law in 1840 to recover African-American residents who had been kidnapped and sold into slavery.

Northup sued the slave traders in Washington, DC, but lost in the local court. District of Columbia law prohibited him as a black man from testifying against whites and, without his testimony, the men went free. Returning to his family in New York, Northup became active in abolitionism. He published an account of his experiences in Twelve Years a Slave (1853) in his first year of freedom. Northup gave dozens of lectures throughout the Northeast on his experiences as a slave, in order to support the abolitionist cause.

In the early 1860s, Northup, along with another black man, aided a Methodist minister in Vermont in helping fugitive slaves on the Underground Railroad. The circumstances of Northup's death are uncertain.

Solomon Northup's memoir was reprinted several times later in the 19th century. An annotated version was published in 1968, edited by Sue Eakin and Joseph Logsdon. The memoir was adapted and produced as a film in 2013 by Steve McQueen, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor as Northup. Previously, a TV movie had been made of Northup's story, Solomon Northup's Odyssey (1984), directed by Gordon Parks. Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and former U.S. poet laureate Rita Dove wrote her poem "The Abduction" about Solomon Northup (published in her first collection, "The Yellow House on the Corner", 1980.)

Since 1999, Saratoga Springs, New York, has celebrated an annual Solomon Northup Day. ...more

Combine Editions
Solomon Northup’s books

Average rating: 4.22 · 124,275 ratings · 8,550 reviews · 110 distinct works • Similar authors

	Twelve Years a Slave 4.22 avg rating — 119,290 ratings — published 1853 — 2707 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	12 Years a Slave and Other Slave Narratives by Solomon Northup, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass 4.19 avg rating — 3,246 ratings — published 1853 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Twelve Years a Slave: Plus Five American Slave Narratives, Including Life of Frederick Douglass, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Life of Josiah Henson, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Up From Slavery by Solomon Northup, Frederick Douglass, Josiah Henson 4.36 avg rating — 1,094 ratings — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	12 Years a Slave and the Emancipation Proclamation 4.37 avg rating — 189 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	12 Years a Slave / My Bondage and My Freedom / Up from Slavery by Solomon Northup, Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglass 4.38 avg rating — 63 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Twelve Years a Slave / Uncle Tom's Cabin / Up From Slavery 4.40 avg rating — 20 ratings — published 2014	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	12 Years a Slave Gold Collection: The Essential 12 Years a Slave Collection, Includes Twelve Years a Slave, Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Life of Fredrick Douglass, The Life of Lincoln and more 3.67 avg rating — 15 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Twelve Years a Slave & American Slave Narrative Collection (Annotated and Illustrated) (Annotated Classics) by Solomon Northup, Harriet Ann Jacobs, Frederick Douglass 3.85 avg rating — 13 ratings — published 2014 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	12 Years a Slave and 7 Narratives by Solomon Northup, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass 4.71 avg rating — 7 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, from a Cotton Plantation near the Red River in Louisiana. 4.33 avg rating — 6 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Solomon Northup…

Quotes by Solomon Northup (?)

“What difference is there in the color of the soul?”
― Solomon Northup, 12 Years A Slave

175 likes

“Life is dear to every living thing; the worm that crawls upon the ground will struggle for it.”
― Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave

tags: life

109 likes

“There may be humane masters, as there certainly are inhuman ones—there may be slaves well-clothed, well-fed, and happy, as there surely are those half-clad, half-starved and miserable; nevertheless, the institution that tolerates such wrong and inhumanity as I have witnessed, is a cruel, unjust, and barbarous one. Men may write fictions portraying lowly life as it is, or as it is not—may expatiate with owlish gravity upon the bliss of ignorance—discourse flippantly from arm chairs of the pleasures of slave life; but let them toil with him in the field—sleep with him in the cabin—feed with him on husks; let them behold him scourged, hunted, trampled on, and they will come back with another story in their mouths. Let them know the heart of the poor slave—learn his secret thoughts—thoughts he dare not utter in the hearing of the white man; let them sit by him in the silent watches of the night—converse with him in trustful confidence, of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," and they will find that ninety-nine out of every hundred are intelligent enough to understand their situation, and to cherish in their bosoms the love of freedom, as passionately as themselves.”
― Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave

57 likes

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Polls

January 2015 Revisit the Shelf Classic Poll

1925, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 180 pages

11 votes, 21.6%

1898, The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, 192 pages

9 votes, 17.6%

1961, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, 453 pages

6 votes, 11.8%

1929, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, 293 pages

6 votes, 11.8%

1952, East of Eden by John Steinbeck, 601 pages

5 votes, 9.8%

1853, Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, 363 pages

4 votes, 7.8%

1929, The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, 326 pages

4 votes, 7.8%

1951, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, 277 pages

3 votes, 5.9%

1861, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, 505 pages

2 votes, 3.9%

1851, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale by Herman Melville, 663 pages

1 vote, 2.0%

51 total votes

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Solomon Northup’s Followers (791)

Solomon Northup

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