Solomon Northup

Born in 1808 in Minerva, New York, he was a free Black man who worked as a farmer and skilled violinist. In 1841, after traveling to Washington, D.C., he was kidnapped, stripped of his freedom, and sold into slavery in Louisiana.

After regaining his freedom in 1853, he published Twelve Years a Slave, a memoir that carefully recounts his abduction, the years he spent enslaved, and the people and places he encountered. The book remains one of the most important firsthand narratives of American slavery because of its detail, clarity, and emotional force.

His later life is less clearly documented, which adds to the sense of mystery around him. What is certain is that his memoir has endured for generations, giving readers a direct, human view of injustice and survival through his own voice.