Title: Twelve years a slave /
Authors: Northup, Solomon, 1808-1863?; Gates, Henry Louis,; Gates, Henry Louis,; Berlin, Ira, 1941-
Publisher: Penguin Books,
Year: 2012
Subjects: Northup, Solomon,; Northup, Solomon,; Slaves United States Biography; Slaves' writings, American.; African Americans Biography; Plantation life Louisiana History; Slavery Louisiana History; BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Personal Memoirs.; HISTORY United States 19th Century.; SOCIAL SCIENCE Ethnic Studies African American Studies.; African Americans; Plantation life; Slavery; Slaves; Slaves' writings, American; Louisiana; United States
Abstract: "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 is recognized for its unusual insight and eloquence as one of the very few portraits of American slavery produced by someone as educated as Solomon Northup, or by someone with the dual perspective of having been both a free man and a slave"--
Contents: General editor essay / Henry Louis Gates Jr -- Introduction / Ira Berlin -- Suggestions for further reading -- Twelve Years A Slave: -- Editor's Preface -- Chapter 1: -- Introductory -- Ancestry -- Northup family -- Birth and parentage -- Mintus Northup -- Marriage with Anne Hampton -- Good Resolutions -- Champlain canal -- Rafting excursion to Canada -- Farming -- Violin -- Cooking -- Removal to Saratoga -- Parker and Perry -- Slaves and slavery -- Children -- Beginning of sorrow -- Chapter 2: -- Two strangers -- Circus company -- Departure from Saratoga -- Ventriloquism and legerdemain -- Journey to New York -- Free papers -- Brown and Hamilton -- Haste to reach the circus -- Arrival in Washington -- Funeral of Harrison -- Sudden sickness -- Torment of thirst -- Receding light -- Insensibility -- Chains and darkness -- Chapter 3: -- Painful meditations -- James H Burch -- Williams slave pen in Washington -- Lackey, Radburn -- Assert my freedom -- Anger of the trader --