# Twelve Years a Slave

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Twelve Years a Slave (1853) is a memoir and slave narrative by Solomon Northup, as told to and edited by David Wilson. Northup, a black man who was born free in New York, details his kidnapping in Washington, D.C. and subsequent sale into slavery. After having been kept in bondage for 12 years in Louisiana by various masters, Northup was able to write to friends and family in New York, who were able to secure his release. Northup's account provides extensive details on the slave markets in Washington, D.C. and New Orleans and describes at length cotton and sugar cultivation on major plantations in Louisiana.Warning: template has been deprecated.
FIFTH THOUSAND.
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.
AUBURN:
DERBY AND MILLER.
BUFFALO:
DERBY, ORTON AND MULLIGAN. LONDON:
SAMPSON LOW, SON & COMPANY, 47 LUDGATE HILL. 1853.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, by
Derby and Miller,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Northern District of New-York.
Entered in London at Stationers' Hall.
TO
HARRIET BEECHER STOWE:
WHOSE NAME,
THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, IS IDENTIFIED WITH THE
GREAT REFORM:
THIS NARRATIVE, AFFORDING ANOTHER
Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin,
IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
"Such dupes are men to custom, and so prone
To reverence what is ancient, and can plead
A course of long observance for its use,
That even servitude, the worst of ills,
Because delivered down from sire to son,
Is kept and guarded as a sacred thing.
But is it fit, or can it bear the shock
Of rational discussion, that a man
Compounded and made up, like other men,
Of elements tumultuous, in whom lust
And folly in as ample measure meet,
As in the bosom of the slave he rules,
Should be a despot absolute, and boast
Himself the only freeman of his land?"
Cowper
CONTENTS.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
EDITOR'S PREFACE.
When the editor commenced the preparation of the following narrative, he did not suppose it would reach the size of this volume. In order, however, to present all the facts which have been communicated to him, it has seemed necessary to extend it to its present length.
Many of the statements contained in the following pages are corroborated by abundant evidence—others rest entirely upon Solomon's assertion. That he has adhered strictly to the truth, the editor, at least, who has had an opportunity of detecting any contradiction or discrepancy in his statements, is well satisfied. He has invariably repeated the same story without deviating in the slightest particular, and has also carefully perused the manuscript, dictating an alteration wherever the most trivial inaccuracy has appeared.
It was Solomon's fortune, during his captivity, to be owned by several masters. The treatment he received while at the "Pine Woods" shows that among slaveholders there are men of humanity as well as of cruelty. Some of them are spoken of with emotions of gratitude—others in a spirit of bitterness. It is ​believed that the following account of his experience on Bayou Bœuf presents a correct picture of Slavery in all its lights and shadows, as it now exists in that locality. Unbiased, as he conceives, by any prepossessions or prejudices, the only object of the editor has been to give a faithful history of Solomon Northup's life, as he received it from his lips.
In the accomplishment of that object, he trusts he has succeeded, notwithstanding the numerous faults of style and of expresssion it may be found to contain.
DAVID WILSON.
Whitehall, N. Y., May, 1853.
This work was published before January 1, 1930, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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