Solomon Northup

Solomon Northup was a free Black man born in New York, working as a farmer, laborer, and skilled violinist, who was kidnapped in 1841 while seeking employment in Washington, D.C., drugged, and sold into slavery in Louisiana for twelve years.[1][2][3] He was rescued in January 1853 through the efforts of friends, family, and the governor of New York.[1][5][7] Northup then authored the bestselling memoir *Twelve Years a Slave* (1853), dictated to David Wilson, and toured as an abolitionist speaker before disappearing from public view after 1857.[2][3][5]