Subscribe to read the full book or read the first pages for free!

Twelve Years a Slave

Solomon Northup

Summary

In his home town of Saratoga, New York, Solomon Northup, a free negro who was a skilled carpenter and violinist, was approached by two circus promoters. They offered him a brief, high-paying job as a musician with their traveling circus. Without informing his wife, who was away at work in a nearby town, he traveled with the strangers to downstate New York and Washington, D.C. Soon after arriving in the capital, he awoke to find himself drugged, bound, and in the cell of a slave pen. When Northup asserted his rights as a free man, he was beaten and warned never again to mention his free life in New York.

Transported by ship to New Orleans, Northup and other enslaved blacks contracted smallpox and one died. In transit, Northup implored a sympathetic sailor to send a letter to his family. The letter arrived safely, but, lacking knowledge of his final destination, Northup's family was unable to effect his rescue.

Northup's first owner was William Prince Ford, who ran a lumber mill on a bayou of the Red River. Northup subsequently had several other owners, less humane than Ford, during his twelve-year bondage. At times, his carpentry and other skills contributed to his being treated relatively well; but he also suffered extreme cruelty. On two occasions, he was attacked by a white man he was leased to, John Tibeats, and defended himself, for which he suffered severe reprisals. After about two years of enslavement, he was sold to Edwin Epps, a notoriously cruel cotton planter. Epps held Northup enslaved for 10 years, during which time he assigned the New Yorker to various roles from cotton picker, to hauler to driver, which required Northup to oversee the work of fellow slaves and punish them for undesirable behavior. While on Epps' plantation, Northup became friends with a slave girl named Patsey, who Northup writes about briefly in the book.

After being beaten for claiming his free status in the slave pen in Washington, D.C., Northup in the ensuing 12 years did not reveal his true history again to a single person, slave or owner. Finally he confided his story to Samuel Bass, a white carpenter and abolitionist from Canada. Bass, at great risk to himself, sent letters to Northup’s wife and friends in Saratoga. A white shopkeeper, Parker, sought the assistance of Henry B. Northup, a white attorney and politician whose family had held and freed Solomon Northup's father and with whom Solomon had a longtime friendship. Henry contacted New York state officials. As the state had passed a law in 1840 to provide financial resources for the rescue of citizens kidnapped into slavery, the Governor appointed Henry Northup as an agent to travel to Louisiana and work with law enforcement to free Solomon. Once in Louisiana, Henry Northup hired local Avoyelles Parish attorney, John P. Waddill, to assist in securing Solomon Northup's freedom.[9] After a variety of bureaucratic measures and searches were undertaken, the attorney succeeded in locating Solomon and freeing him from the plantation. Northup later filed charges against the men who sold him into slavery but was unsuccessful. He returned to New York and reunited with his family there.

Northup concludes his narrative with the following statement:

My narrative is at an end. I have no comments to make upon the subject of Slavery. Those who read this book may form their own opinions of the "peculiar institution." What it may be in other States, I do not profess to know; what it is in the region of Red River, is truly and faithfully delineated in these pages. This is no fiction, no exaggeration. If I have failed in anything, it has been in presenting to the reader too prominently the bright side of the picture. I doubt not hundreds have been as unfortunate as myself; that hundreds of free citizens have been kidnapped and sold into slavery, and are at this moment wearing out their lives on plantations in Texas and Louisiana. But I forbear. Chastened and subdued in spirit by the sufferings I have borne, and thankful to that good Being through whose mercy I have been restored to happiness and liberty, I hope henceforward to lead an upright though lowly life, and rest at last in the church yard where my father sleeps.

—Solomon Northup[10]

Available since: 04/07/2015.

Contemporary Fiction

Other books that might interest you

Grey Dog

Elliott Gish

“Gish’s prose is as sharp as a scalpel.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review
		 
“Grey Dog is a bewitching tale of the horrors of spinsterhood in the early 1900s, with madness and magic threaded through every sentence.” — Heather O’Neill, author of When We Lost Our Heads and Lullabies for Little Criminals
		 
A subversive literary horror novel that disrupts the tropes of women’s historical fiction with delusions, wild beasts, and the uncontainable power of female rage
		 
The year is 1901, and Ada Byrd — spinster, schoolmarm, amateur naturalist — accepts a teaching post in isolated Lowry Bridge, grateful for the chance to re-establish herself where no one knows her secrets. She develops friendships with her neighbors, explores the woods with her students, and begins to see a future in this tiny farming community. Her past — riddled with grief and shame — has never seemed so far away.
		 
But then, Ada begins to witness strange and grisly phenomena: a swarm of dying crickets, a self-mutilating rabbit, a malformed faun. She soon believes that something old and beastly — which she calls Grey Dog — is behind these visceral offerings, which both beckon and repel her. As her confusion deepens, her grip on what is real, what is delusion, and what is traumatic memory loosens, and Ada takes on the wildness of the woods, behaving erratically and pushing her newfound friends away. In the end, she is left with one question: What is the real horror? The Grey Dog, the uncontainable power of female rage, or Ada herself?

Show book

A Slice of Murder

Marissa De Luna

A groom-to-be is cut down at his engagement party, and solving the case won’t be a piece of cake . . . Shilpa Solanki’s talent is making sure that special occasions are accompanied by special cakes, and her first booking after her move to Devon, England—where she’s inherited a house in Otter’s Reach—is a posh engagement party for Mason Connolly and Harriet Drew. Unfortunately, a knife has been used for something other than cutting the cake. Now Shilpa is working to uncover layers of secrets and scandals in hopes of identifying the killer who permanently parted Mason and Harriet—and before she’s done, someone else might get iced . . .

Show book

The Ministry of Pain - A Novel

Dubravka Ugrešic

Far from home, a fractured community of Yugoslav outcasts struggle with their lives in award–winning author Dubravka Ugrešić’s novel The Ministry of Pain.   Having fled the violent breakup of Yugoslavia, Tanja Lucic is now a professor of literature at the University of Amsterdam, where she teaches a class filled with other young Yugoslav exiles, most of whom earn meager wages assembling leather and rubber S&M clothing at a sweatshop they call the “Ministry.”   Abandoning literature, Tanja encourages her students to indulge their “Yugonostalgia” in essays about their personal experiences during their homeland’s cultural and physical disintegration. But Tanja’s act of academic rebellion incites the rage of one renegade member of her class—and pulls her dangerously close to another—which, in turn, exacerbates the tensions of a life in exile that has now begun to spiral seriously out of control.  “A shiningly weird and powerful novel. . . . [It] approaches perfection.” —Washington Post  “Soulful, often searing. . . . This is a work that comes from the gut, one that deserves to be read.” —New York Times Book Review  “Splendidly ambitious. . . . She is a writer to follow. A writer to be cherished.” —Susan Sontag

Show book

The Portrait of a Lady

Henry James

Henry James’s beloved novel about a young woman’s search for freedom in a world that seeks to tie her to convention In the wake of her father’s death, young Isabel Archer decides to travel to England to visit her aunt, leaving behind the life set out for her in America and spurning the romantic overtures of her Bostonian suitor. At her aunt’s country estate, Isabel is determined to plot a new course unburdened by routine. But, prodded by convention at every turn, Isabel makes a decision that not only undermines her longing for independence, but may seal her fate forever. Among one of Henry James’s most timeless works, The Portrait of a Lady is a rich and nuanced depiction of human psychology and the tension between the pull of social norms and the desire for autonomy. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

Show book

The Almost Truth - an...

Anne Hamilton

'In a life full of books and not enough time to read them, I never read a novel twice. This one I will' Clo CareyWinner of the Irish Novel Fair 2021 
A compelling story of family, secrets, identity, and a reminder that love and life can surprise you… right until the very end. 
When Alina’s son, Fin, traces his long-absent birthfather, it’s the catalyst for decades of secrets to implode in Alina’s neatly ordered life. 
With the sudden appearance of Rory, and the ever-present pull of a very different life in Bangladesh, she’s left reeling. 
Three relationships, all of them built on half-truths. All Alina can truly be sure of, is that you can choose your family, you just can’t choose who they will turn out to be. 
'A lovely, compelling read about love, family, and finding yourself' Becky Hunter, author of One Moment 
'Intricately explores themes of home, family, identity, love, and loss, inviting readers to ponder the universal truths — and sometimes lies — that shape our lives' Jane Labous, author of Past Participle 
'Anne Hamilton handles with ease and grace this complex and compelling 'big Hindi movie' of a novel' Caroline Moir, author of The Brockenspectre 
'Set across Edinburgh, Bangladesh and Dublin, mysteries and family secrets abound in this intriguing novel' Elissa Soave, author of Ginger and Me 
'A captivating tale of human dilemmas and the consequences of half-truths' Olga Wojtas 
'A complex tale of interwoven cultures, told truthfully with humour and outright laughter, but always with Anne Hamilton's trademark sensitivity, understanding and honesty' Paul Soye, author of The Boy in the Gap

Show book

Opening Wonders

Rajnar Vajra

Countless un-parallel universes intersect in a place where science and magic function perfectly. A Crossroads World. A world that holds a fantastic and deadly secret. An ultra-advanced species, the Common, govern this world and invite other advanced species to set up enclaves where the planet's extraordinary properties draw an assortment of gods and demons like supernatural moths to a flame. The first human allowed there, Professor David Goldberg, is secretly tasked by Earth’s governments to observe the Common.But Goldberg’s mission might not be as secret as he thinks. Someone or something with unknown motivations sends truly terrifying monsters bent on taking him down. Opening Wonders. Fantasy, science fiction, mythology, adventure, mystery, rich history—and more.

Show book