Twelve Years a Slave

Twelve Years a Slave is a memoir by Solomon Northup, a black man who was born free in New York and kidnapped by two men who sold him into slavery. Northup spent 12 years as a slave in the Deep South, encountering slave markets in Washington, DC and New Orleans and working on numerous cotton and sugar plantations throughout Louisiana. Northup narrated his memoir to American lawyer and writer David Wilson, who then edited Northup’s accounts into a manuscript. Twelve Years a Slave was published in 1853 and quickly became a bestseller, selling over 30,000 copies. The memoir has since been adapted into two film versions: a 1984 PBS series called Solomon Northup’s Odyssey and the Oscar-winning 2013 film 12 Years a Slave, directed by Steve McQueen. This guide uses the 2013 Penguin Books edition (which coincided with the release of McQueen’s film).

Solomon Northup’s memoir opens with a description of his life as a freeborn Black man in Saratoga Springs, New York. He explains that he is the son of an emancipated slave, Mintus Northup. Growing up under the mentorship of his father, Solomon Northup becomes an accomplished man, learning to read, write, and play the violin.