Solomon Northup

"A harrowing memoir about one of the darkest periods in American historyBorn a free man in New York, Solomon Northup was abducted in Washington, D.C., in 1841 and spent the next twelve years of his life in captivity as a slave on a Louisiana cotton plantation. After his rescue, he published this exceptionally vivid and detailed account of slave life--perhaps the best written of all the slave narratives. It became an immediate bestseller and today...

The incredible true story of the kidnapping, enslavement, and rescue of Solomon Northup in the era before the Civil War-now a major motion picture! In 1841, Solomon Northup was a free man living in Saratoga Springs, New York, making a living as a violinist and spending his spare time with his wife and three young children. Lured to Washington, DC, with the promise of a generous sum of money, Northup finds himself drugged, beaten, and sold before...

Before slavery was outlawed in the United States in 1865, most free Americans had little understanding of this brutal institution. One of the abolitionist movement's few tools for illustrating its horrors was the slave narrative. Memoirs written by former slaves provided hard-hitting eyewitness accounts of the day-to-day cruelties of slavery. These narratives also gave hope. With their vivid imagery and thoughtfully poignant commentary, these stories...

It is 1841, and Solomon Northup, an accomplished, free citizen of New York, is kidnapped and sold into slavery. Stripped of his identity and deprived of all dignity, Northup is ultimately purchased by ruthless plantation owner Edwin Epps and must find the strength within to survive.