Twelve Years a Slave: A True Story

by Solomon Northup

The shocking first-hand account of one man’s remarkable fight for freedom; now an award-winning motion picture.

‘Why had I not died in my young years – before God had given me children to love and live for? What unhappiness and suffering and sorrow it would have prevented. I sighed for liberty; but the bondsman's chain was round me, and could not be shaken off.’

1841: Solomon Northup is a successful violinist when he is kidnapped and sold into slavery. Taken from his family in New York State – with no hope of ever seeing them again – and forced to work on the cotton plantations in the Deep South, he spends the next twelve years in captivity until his eventual escape in 1853.

First published in 1853, this extraordinary true story proved to be a powerful voice in the debate over slavery in the years leading up to the Civil War. It is a true-life testament of one man’s courage and conviction in the face of unfathomable injustice and brutality: its influence on the course of American history cannot be overstated.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Classics, Biography, Memoir, Audiobook, Historical

273 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 5, 1853

About the author

Solomon Northup was a free-born African American from Saratoga Springs, New York. He is noted for having been kidnapped in 1841 when enticed with a job offer. When he accompanied his supposed employers to Washington, DC, they drugged him and sold him into slavery. From Washington, DC, he was transported to New Orleans where he was sold to a plantation owner from Rapides Parish, Louisiana. After 12 years in bondage, he regained his freedom in January 1853; he was one of very few to do so in such cases. Held in the Red River region of Louisiana by several different owners, he got news to his family, who contacted friends and enlisted the New York governor in his cause. New York state had passed a law in 1840 to recover African-American residents who had been kidnapped and sold into slavery.

Northup sued the slave traders in Washington, DC, but lost in the local court. District of Columbia law prohibited him as a black man from testifying against whites and, without his testimony, the men went free. Returning to his family in New York, Northup became active in abolitionism. He published an account of his experiences in Twelve Years a Slave (1853) in his first year of freedom. Northup gave dozens of lectures throughout the Northeast on his experiences as a slave, in order to support the abolitionist cause.

In the early 1860s, Northup, along with another black man, aided a Methodist minister in Vermont in helping fugitive slaves on the Underground Railroad. The circumstances of Northup's death are uncertain.

Solomon Northup's memoir was reprinted several times later in the 19th century. An annotated version was published in 1968, edited by Sue Eakin and Joseph Logsdon. The memoir was adapted and produced as a film in 2013 by Steve McQueen, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor as Northup. Previously, a TV movie had been made of Northup's story, Solomon Northup's Odyssey (1984), directed by Gordon Parks. Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and former U.S. poet laureate Rita Dove wrote her poem "The Abduction" about Solomon Northup (published in her first collection, "The Yellow House on the Corner", 1980.)

Since 1999, Saratoga Springs, New York, has celebrated an annual Solomon Northup Day.

Reviews

[Miranda Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

"What difference is there in the color of the soul?"

Solomon Northup, born a free man during slavery times in America, is tricked and subsequently sold into slavery.

He goes from respectable carpenter, clever violinist, father of two to "Platt" (a slave from Georgia) in only a few days.

At first he tries to resist but soon learns that any sign of rebellion would result in his death.

This book chronicles his twelve years as Platt - through the working conditions, the harsh overseers, the inhumane cruelty - this book provides an unflinching account of what it was like to be a slave in America.

Upon release, he wrote and published his account as propaganda against slavery.

"There may be humane masters, as there certainly are inhuman ones - there may be slaves well-clothed, well-fed, and happy, as there surely are those half-clad, half-starved and miserable; nevertheless, the institution that tolerates such wrong and inhumanity as I have witnessed, is a cruel, unjust, and barbarous one."

Now, while this was used as propaganda, it was not a work of fiction.

Everything that could be verified through documents has been thus this is a true account.

And because of that, it is absolutely heartbreaking.

"I don't want to survive, I want to live."

You can learn about slavery in history class but reading bland facts does not compare to first hand accounts. This sheds a complete new light on this shameful part of history.

I regret not reading this book earlier.


Audiobook Comments
--I listened to the Blackstone Audioversion, read by Louis Gossett Jr. He read it rather well. There's another version that gives Solomon a posh (almost English) accent. That threw me off too much, so I went with this one.

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[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's a sin, a fearful sin, resting on this nation, that will not go unpunished forever. There will be reckoning yet ... it may be sooner or it may be later, but it's a coming as sure as the Lord is just.

-Solomon Northup, 1855

I am a middle-age American white guy obsessed with my country's shameful chapter, our "peculiar institution" - slavery. No matter how many books I read, movies I see or any other means of approaching the subject there exists a gulf of understanding that can never be bridged. I can feel pity, shame, anger or any other emotion, but I will never know.

Northup's harrowing, page-turning narrative is the first book that I have read on the subject of American slavery that has allowed me the first inkling of answers to some of my questions of "how" and "why". Northup was a free man, born free in New York State, married to a free black woman and father of three children. Humanity's dark side shows its teeth and while away on business he is drugged, chained and then sold into slavery in Louisiana until he is rescued 12 years later. A horrible story with a happy ending, but as Northup makes clear by way of his being an interloper into that sickening economic system: his tale only runs parallel with the multi-generational truth of slavery. He fell into it, got out of it. For those hundreds of thousands of men, women and children that are born and ultimately die into it, there is only hopelessness.

So what Northup does, where he reaches across the ages and a race divide that I can never cross - he takes a look at his oppressors and states: "I get it." You take a white boy, the son of a slave owner, and from his birth you instill in him that there is no humanity in a slave. Northup: "..with such training, whatever may be his natural disposition, it cannot well be otherwise than that, on arriving at maturity, the sufferings and miseries of the slave will be looked upon with entire indifference." So in 2013, I am equally unable to understand the mind of a white slave owner. I was not born into this - how could I ever empathize with a multi-generational slave owning white southern man? "Brought up with such ideas - in the notion that we stand without the pale of humanity - no wonder the oppressors of my people are a pitiless and unrelenting race."

William Vollmann refers to this book several times in Rising Up and Rising Down - and this is how I first became aware of it. I wish that everyone would get the chance to read it - Northup's writing style and the story itself, while horrific and sad, is still so very important. This past weekend I was in a movie theater and I saw a preview for an upcoming big budget movie made from this book. I nearly choked on my popcorn. I just hope that Hollywood didn't make hashwork of this story and for those that won't get the chance to read the book, that Northup's tale will educate and inspire a new generation. And perhaps help those of us that are searchers for truth get a little bit closer to understanding.

[Dr. Appu Sasidharan (Dasfill) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book discusses the story of Solomon Northup, born in New York and leading a peaceful life there.

He was kidnapped in Washington city, sold into slavery, and had to work as an enslaved person for 12 long years in Louisiana.

The author delineates the slave trade in Washington D.C., and New Orleans in the 19th century. We will also get detailed information regarding the functioning of cotton and sugar cultivation in Louisiana at that time.

What I learned from this book
1) Slavery

It is alarming to read that even in the 21st-century, slavery still persists in many parts of the world, even if it is illegal. The system of owning a human being by others has caused many human rights violations. There were different types of slavery, including chattel, bonded, forced labor, and sexual slavery. This biography of Solomon Northup gives us a vivid picture of slavery and how people had to suffer due to it.

“I could not comprehend the justice of that law, or that religion, which upholds or recognizes the principle of slavery.”

2) Do people become more religious in times of crisis?
I recently read in a book that faith increased by a significant margin during the COVID pandemic. In this book, Northup also shows us how faith increases during a crisis situation we face in life.

“At such times, the heart of man turns instinctively towards his Maker. In prosperity, and whenever there is nothing to injure or make him afraid, he remembers Him not, and is ready to defy Him; but place him in the midst of dangers, cut him off from human aid, let the grave open before him, then it is, in the time of his tribulation, that the scoffer and unbelieving man turns to God for help, feeling there is no other hope, or refuge, or safety, save in his protecting arm."

3) What are all the hardships that the people had to suffer due to slavery?
Northup describes about the abuse, hardships, and fear he had to tolerate during his arduous life in Louisiana.

“Oh! how heavily the weight of slavery pressed upon me then. I must toil day after day, endure abuse and taunts and scoffs, sleep on the hard ground, live on the coarsest fare, and not only this, but live the slave of a blood-seeking wretch, of whom I must stand henceforth in continued fear and dread."

My favourite three lines from this book

“Life is dear to every living thing; the worm that crawls upon the ground will struggle for it.”

"Let them know the heart of the poor slave—learn his secret thoughts—thoughts he dare not utter in the hearing of the white man; let them sit by him in the silent watches of the night—converse with him in trustful confidence, of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," and they will find that ninety-nine out of every hundred are intelligent enough to understand their situation, and to cherish in their bosoms the love of freedom, as passionately as themselves."

“Really, it was difficult to determine which I had most reason to fear—dogs, alligators or men!”

What could have been better?
This is not an easy book to read. The writing style, the language, and the harrowing experiences mentioned in this book by the author will make the reading experience difficult for some people.

Rating
5/5 This is one of the best memoirs you can read, which discusses the topic of slavery.

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[Petra X · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know it's a genuine slave narrative, but it is just one-note. It concentrates on episode after episode of intense and repeated physical abuse. I don't doubt its veracity but there are far more nuanced - and readable - narratives out there.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is about life as a slave when not being physically abused. For most slave owners slaves were extremely expensive farm animals and only the richest who could afford 'herds' of them would be able to maltreat them on a continual basis. If you want hard work from your oxen, and you want to breed from your cows, they have to be kept healthy and in good condition. Well fed, rested, and with down-time. Not a life of ease or quality, not one without the whip, but one designed that the animals will do their job dawn to dusk and breed on a regular basis. So it was with slaves.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave is that of a slave who escaped and became a famous abolitionist, in the US and the UK, and a newspaper publisher. In the UK, which had never had slavery UK slavery was concentrated in the Caribbean, not in the UK, where the few slaves were mostly in London and treated much the same as the other servants Douglass was an enormously popular public speaker. A little known, but important fact about him, is that after the death of his wife, he remarried a white feminist, and supported feminism as strongly as he did anti-slavery measures.

The House of Bondage: Or Charlotte Brooks and Other Slaves is a collection of short slave narratives that provide an immensely depressing look at a period of American life that makes one wonder how people could actually have thought it was all right to treat other people like that for mere profit by the mental device passed from one white person to the other, of pretending that black people weren't quite human.

In the New Testament, it is said, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." The Church at the time, as do many now, preached that wealth and mistreatment of other human beings was a perfectly good way to be considered a decent religious person and no bar to eternal life at all. So it was without guilt, these men and women who owned other people and treated them like animals and beat them and took their children from them went to church on a Sunday with a clean and pure conscience and were generous, no doubt, at the collection. Not only that, but in order for their souls to be saved, and in order to control them with less beatings encourage the docility of fatalism, plantation owners taught their slaves Christianity. That way they could see their pre-ordained place in the world, the stain of their blood, and that accepting this would give them eternal life in heaven. Amen.

This is not anti-Christian. The religion of the South was Christianity and this is how it was. The more modern experiences of slavery, set in the 90s, books such Mende Nazer's chilling Slave: My True Story and Francis Bok's Escape from Slavery: The True Story of My Ten Years in Captivity and My Journey to Freedom in America both set in Sudan (and in Mende's case, in London, about a mile from my flat. I used to walk past where she was enslaved every day without knowing it) do not show any religious involvement. The slaves in Sudan were/are usually Muslim, occasionally animist or Christian, the slavemasters being Muslim. However, the Muslims of Sudan do not preach one way or another about slavery.

It is interesting to note that Saudi Arabia which had an estimated 300,000 slaves in the 1950s, did not ban slavery until 1962. In Mauritania slavery was not banned until 2007. In Niger, in 2003 when slavery was finally banned 8% of the population were enslaved. However it is very politically-incorrect to mention African slavery of Africans, this would lessen the effect of hate-speech against all whites which is very prevalent and acceptable in the Caribbean, I don't know about the US.

To sum up, the book is not an easy read, it is very distressing. For those not responsible but looking back to their country's involvement in that awful institution, I suppose it could be some kind of mea culpa. And from that point of view, in a fulfilling way the book could be a deep emotional experience.

[Maria Espadinha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Um Herói da Vida Real


Existem múltiplas e variadas ficções sobre a escravatura nos USA. Porém, histórias verdadeiras, narradas por alguém que as sofreu e viveu, não conheço outra além desta!

Solomon Northup nasceu e viveu livre no Norte dos USA.
Um dia foi emboscado, raptado e vendido como escravo no Sul. E por lá permaneceu até ao dia em que reconquistou a liberdade que lhe fora tão barbaramente roubada...

Por um lado, esta é uma narrativa chocante onde somos, como em muitas outras, confrontados com a força do lado humano mais negro que, no caso concreto, redundou nas atrocidades cometidas contra os escravos do Sul dos USA.

Por outro lado, também nos anima ao mostrar com um exemplo muito real que a resultante do trio: coragem, determinação e causa nobre é uma força capaz de derrubar a anterior.

Solomon Northup é, sem sombra de dúvida, mais uma figura inspiradora que mostra que o melhor da natureza humana tem um poder capaz de milagres!

São homens desta craveira que demonstram quanto compensa investir no nosso potencial positivo.
Podemos aproximar-nos dos "deuses" ou dos "demónios". A escolha é nossa!

[Rowena · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Now had I approached within the shadow of the cloud, into the thick darkness whereof I was soon to disappear, thenceforward to be hidden from the eyes of all my kindred, and shut out from the sweet light of liberty for many a weary year.”

I’m embarrassed to say I had no idea that this was a true story. I find it odd that I’d never heard of this particular slave narrative, given how powerful and informative it is. I decided to read it after all the media frenzy surrounding the movie (which I haven’t watched and probably won’t).

This narrative was written by Solomon Northrup, a freeman kidnapped from the North, and taken to a work on a plantation in Louisiana, where he lived for 12 years until he was rescued. The whole account was very detailed; we are given names, dates and so on. There are also graphic depictions of violence and plenty of sadness and grief.

The more stories about slavery that I read, the more I realize what a diversity in stories and experiences exist. There are always common themes though: the brutality of the slavedrivers who don’t get their comeuppance, for one, and the injustice of the whole system too. The fact that the slaves were treated as less than animals is something that makes these kinds of stories difficult to read.

I was expecting to be more affected by the pain and violence that I knew slaves experienced at the hands of their masters. However, I found myself more affected by the psychological pain that they had to endure. Coincidentally, I just read a poem by African-Canadian poet Dwayne Morgan entitled “The Academy Awards” which goes:

“And you don’t know the psychological

And spiritual trauma,

Of constantly having to justify your existence,

Your location and your presence.”

I felt quite ignorant about American history while reading this narrative; I was unaware that there was a time when some blacks were free while others were enslaved.

As difficult as it is for me to read anything related to slavery I believe it is important for stories like this one to be heard. I’m in awe at how much resilience African-American slaves showed.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot fathom this book. Everything that happens in this autobiography is so distant from anything that I have experienced that I cannot even conceive of the injustice in any sort of measurable or reasonable amount. I feel angry and heartbroken that this sort of crime ever took place in our country, disgusted to the point of choking, so horrified that human trafficking through America is still so present and strong, so helpless because I don’t even know how to help, because I want to help, because I would want to kill the person that took my freedom from me and forced me to work, in any capacity, that treated me like chattel.

There were times that I felt Northrup was being too forgiving, or wasn’t being hard enough, on the people he encountered in the South, but having read substantially from this time period this lack of emotion seems to be due in part to stylistic choices- effusive emotion never really comes through writings from this period. I don’t know if it just wasn’t distinguished to write with unbridled passion, but you don’t see it in literature from this time, and so I assume that Northrup was just writing in the style of his day. There were other times where you could feel his rage and dismay, but it was all bundled up in what I am sure was the editorial process. And maybe I willfully distanced myself from some of it, because it was just so hard to force myself to confront the beatings, the whippings, and the separation and sorrow he was writing about.

In fact, there are times that its dry, matter-of-fact portrayal of this tragedy (not just of Northrup, but the tragedy of slavery) was its strong point. He is a reliable narrator, it never feels that he is embellishing, and hearing about the forced desertion of a child as the mother is sold separately in such dry tones, makes it harder to turn away from. You are just faced with the bare starkness of it all. This IS what happened, and simply put. It is powerful in its relation. How this isn’t mandatory reading is beyond me. I feel that even excerpts from this work would have substantially and radically changed my perception of my history lessons. The truth can never come too early for children, while sugar-coating history has the same effect as sugar coating teeth- you are left with decay, holes, and false teeth and tales. Perhaps it would be too hard and too brutal, but most of the world is too hard and too brutal, and if we never force ourselves to confront it in our comfortable castles in America, then it will also, inevitably, never change.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very powerful and important book. It seems like lately a lot of my selections have focused on the dark side of American history - and this one is particularly dark, sad, and disturbing.

I missed the big rush to read this book a few years ago when the movie came out. But I am finally glad I picked it up. I am not sure if I will follow it up any time soon with the movie. But, I can see how this story would make an equally moving and impactful motion picture.

I think my one issue with the book was several times the narrative got bogged down and my mind started to wander. This may just be a side effect of it being written in the 1800s. Often when I read classic books, even if I enjoy them, the style of the writing makes it difficult to stay focused. So, if you decide to give it a try, just be prepared for the delivery to get a bit stagnant at times.

But, overall another important non-fiction story for all to read and remember. Slavery is definitely a part of history we never should repeat and racism should have no place in our society. Learning and responding accordingly are the best course of action to prevent darkness like this from taking hold again.

[Sean Barrs · Rating 4 out of 5]

“My sufferings I can compare to nothing else than the burning agonies of hell!”

This book is told from the view point of a man who was a slave, not some historian’s interpretation of the events or a novelist’s aggrandisement. It is a frank narrative of the events that surrounded one man’s persecution into a woeful existence and allows the reader to form their own opinion of the life of a slave. This is a unique enlightenment into the American slave system, of the 19th century, conveying the hypocrisy of the land of liberation, allowing insight into the prejudices and cruelty these men and women were subjected to.

This novel is a sad read, such as was the enslavement of Solomon Northup but nonetheless an interesting one. The sadness is personified when you realise he almost accepts the situation when he is with “Master Ford” because of his kind treatment regardless of being a slave. Epps truly was a cruel man, like many other plantation owners at the time. Solomon was truly lucky of the intervention of Bass who rescued him from his persecution without whom, he would have spent the rest of his days forced to work as a Louisianan slave.

[Pakinam · Rating 4 out of 5]

اثنا عشر عاماً من العبودية ...كتاب يعتبر سيرة ذاتية لسلومون نورثوب وهو يعد واحداً من أفضل الأعمال التي تناولت قضية العبودية في الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية لانه يستعرض قصة حقيقية هزت المجتمع الأمريكي وقد نشر عام ١٨٥٣ وكان من الكتب الأكثر مبيعاً في ذلك الوقت وحصد الفيلم المأخوذ عن قصة هذا الكتاب العديد من الجوائز منها جائزة أوسكار أفضل فيلم للعام 2014...

سلومون نورتوب كان مواطن حر اختُطِف من واشنطن في عام 1841 وجرى بيعه في سوق العبيد، ومكث في ظلام العبودية اثني عشر عاماً - حيث امتلكه أكثر من سيد تعرض خلالها لأشكال مختلفة من الوحشية والقهر والصراع من أجل البقاء على قيد الحياة حتى تم إنقاذه في عام 1853 وعاد أخيراً إلى أسرته وزوجته و أولاده الثلاثة...

الكتاب يوجع القلب و فيه تفاصيل بشعة تعرض لها نورتوب و غيره من العبيد سواء من المعاملة السيئة والجلد بالسياط لاتفه الأسباب كما إنه يرسم صورة دقيقة لتفاصيل الحياة اليومية للعبيد في ولايات الجنوب الأمريكي و كيف كانوا السبب في تكوين ثروات ضخمة لأسيادهم لانهم يعملوا من دون أي مقابل أو حقوق و يعتبر ذلك السبب الرئيسي لرفض ولايات الجنوب الأمريكي الحملة التي شنها الرئيس الأمريكي إبراهام لينكولن لإلغاء نظام الرق...

أهم ما في الكتاب انه من ناحية بيوضح طبيعة بعض البشر اللذين يميلوا إلي الوحشية و ليس لهم أي علاقة بالمشاعر الانسانية و من ناحية تانية بيأكد علي مبدأ أن الإنسان يولد حرّاً وأن الحياة لا معنى لها حين ينقطع رجاء المرء في الو��ول إلى الحرية وأنه أي حد مهماً كان في ظروف صعبة حيفضل دايماً يحاول و يسعي إنه يكون إنسان حر...

لا يجوز تقييم التجارب الانسانية بعدد من النجوم ولكنه في النهاية كتاب مهم وينصح بقراءته..

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciated this excellent book (some of its scenes still haunt me), but compared to other non-fiction slave narratives such as Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, there was a bit more distance of perspective here. The facts are still searing; the antidotes still filled me with horror. But sometimes the narrator feels a step removed.

I read much of the account before I realized why I felt that way .. and then I got to Northup's description of the Christmas celebrations among the slaves. He writes, "Marriage is frequently contracted during the holidays, if such an institution may be said to exist among them." He wasn't one of "them." He was a Northerner. Not only does he not consider himself one of them, he wonders here if their marriages are even fully real. That comment struck me immediately as odd; looking back, I remember many of them.

Solomon Northup was an exceptionally intelligent man. Southern culture wasn't his, and at times he almost seems to take the tone of an anthropological study. Perhaps that's why he includes long tracts on various customs and planting methods. The planting methods are eye opening in giving a true depiction of the slaves' grueling labor, but he goes beyond this to describe the methods in great detail - the irrigation, the plowing process, the sort of mounding for each crop. In the end, I think his objective is much larger than telling his and his fellow slaves' human stories. Much as an anthropologist studying a foreign tribe, he tries to give full picture of the Southern life and culture in that area of the South.

This focus and his striking intellect make for a unique experience. Yes, sometimes the human story is slowed down a bit by the seeming diversions, but the fuller picture he provides is fascinating as well as searing. If being moved by a human story's raw power is primary, I would recommend Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl first - that book is unforgettable in its immediacy; the reader is pulled directly down into the dark pit of horrors that was slavery. If instead, one wants a fuller historical and cultural study of the period, I would highly recommend this excellent book. In the end though, the distinction is a bit artificial. The world could be improved much if every American were to read both books and many other stories besides from other periods, books that describe periods of history in enough detail that they can be understood not only with the mind but also, even more importantly, with the heart!

[Tahani Shihab · Rating 5 out of 5]

“وما الفرق في لون الروح”.

هذا الكتاب لا يسرد فقط اثنا عشر عامًا من سيرة حياة الكاتب سولمون نورثوب التي قضاها في أغلال العبودية. بل يتحدث عن مشاهد فضيعة لزنوج وعبيد وإماء آخرين كانو معه طوال فترة أسره.

يسرد الكاتب صورة للمعاملة الوحشية التي كان يتلقاها في الأسر هو وبقية العبيد والتي تُعتبر وصمة عار في التاريخ الأمريكي البشع.

لم يمارس تعذيب العبيد الرجال فقط آنذاك. بل دخلت النساء أيضًا على الخط في ممارسة التعذيب، كذلك الأطفال والمراهقين. الكل استاذ بممارسة هذا العمل الوحشي!.

أسلوب السرد كان سلس، وأحداث ربط القصة شيق.


اقتباسات


“لم أستطع فهم عدالة ذلك القانون، أو تلك الديانة، التي تتمسك بمبدأ العبودية وتعترف به”.

“كان من الصعب حقًا تحديد ما يُفترض أن أخشاه أكثر؛ الكلاب، أم التماسيح، أم البشر!”.

“الحياة غالية لدى كل الأحياء، حتى الدودة التي تزحف فوق الأرض سوف تناضل للحفاظ على حياتها”.

“بورك النوم! فهو يزور الجميع سواسية، ويهبط كقطرات الندى من السماء فوق الحرّ والعبد”.

سولمون نورثوب.

[V.D. Taylor]

Pre_read:

This will definitely be a heavy book.

[Richard Knight · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of people are saying this book reads like a novel, but I couldn't disagree more. It reads like a man telling his life story, which is fascinating, giving what the man became for twelve years, but not as engrossing as some of the new journalism that came out in the 60s and 70s by people like Hunter S. Thompson and Norman Mailer. Call it a book of its time.

I actually saw the movie before I read the book, and there's an interesting difference. The movie is about the life of a slave, while the book is more about slave life. There's actually a huge difference between the two. While I could empathize more with Solomon in the movie, in the book, you actually get a sense that slave life wasn't as horrific as it truly was, given that Solomon presents a fair depiction of both a kindly slave owner and a tyrannical slave owner. There's also much more hope in the book, which is refreshing, but it makes the situation not feel as dire as it truly was. This is one instance where I think the movie is better than the book.

Give it a read to get probably the most accurate depiction of slave life ever put to page. Just don't expect it to read like a movie, because it doesn't.

[Sandeep · Rating 5 out of 5]

“What difference is there in the color of the soul?”

A powerful and apparently true firsthand account from Solomon Northup, a free black man, tricked and sold to slavery after which he was rescued 12 years hence.

I can say that it was chilling, heart breaking, gut wrenching, atrocious and none of these words can aptly describe Solomon Northup's experience as told in this memoir. The brutality of the slave masters is so finely detailed, the complete lack of justice so well elucidated and the story unfolded so seamlessly, that a reader wouldn't be faulted for mistaking Northup for an established novelist. The scenes where the lashings takes place and when a child is being separated from her mother is graphic and horrifying.

I was expecting to be more affected by the pain and violence that I knew slaves experienced at the hands of their masters. However, I found myself more affected by the psychological pain that they had to endure. Northup admits he survived all these years just because of the will to see his family again.

Twelve Years a Slave is an important and gripping text for its subject and execution, and I highly recommend it.

[Kyriakos Sorokkou]

  cotton

After reading this book, I will never see cotton under the same way ever again.

When we think of cotton, we see something we consider fluffy, comfortable, and cosy, but for thousands of people, cotton and more precisely cotton fields were hell on earth.
A lot of people were unlucky to be born in an era where your skin colour defined whether you were a master or a slave.
Black people from their late teens up to their deaths were working for 360 days in cotton fields, in maize fields, on sugar plantations, bringing high profits for their masters, but they were never considered workforce or (even) humans. They were something better than animals, but not humans.

And what is worse than being born a freeman, live as a freeman, create a family and suddenly, at your early 30's you're kidnapped and you are sold as a slave, working for twelve miserable years.
Solomon's story has a happy ending. But for thousands and thousands of people their stories didn't.


Let's make this book a symbol that indicates that
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, something obvious to me but not for many people, even today.



I don't think I will be able to watch the film. The great actor Michael Fassbender, was able to create an absolutely terrifying portrayal of the plantation owner Edwin Epps.




but nevertheless, this is a

: Highly recommended book :

[Beatriz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creo que cualquier libro que verse sobre uno de los periodos más oscuros de la historia de Estados Unidos, es imposible que deje indiferente al lector. Más si se sabe que lo que se está leyendo es una historia real y que las situaciones, costumbres y abusos que se nos describen son relatados de primera fuente.

Salomon Northup, nacido libre al igual que su padre en un estado del norte de Estados Unidos, fue engañado, drogado, secuestrado y vendido a esclavistas del sur, viviendo en esa condición durante doce años de su vida, diez de los cuales fue propiedad de un amo cruel, rencoroso e irracional.

Me impactó saber que dependiendo dónde hubiera nacido una persona de color, esto marcaría su destino. Siempre pensé que la abolición de la esclavitud había sido cosa de un período breve, y no que varias generaciones tuvieron que vivir esta incongruencia en un mismo país.

A pesar de haber sido escrito en 1853, es un libro de lectura ágil, con reflexiones muy profundas. En particular recuerdo cómo Salomon se refiere a la deshumanización de la mayoría del los dueños de las plantaciones, quienes al convivir día a día con la degradación del ser humano, pierden todo respeto hacia la vida.

Reto #20 PopSugar 2021: Un libro que se encuentre en una lista de lectura de Black Lives Matter

[Angela M · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can say that it was chilling, heart breaking, gut wrenching, atrocious and none of these words can aptly describe Solomon Northup's experience as told in this memoir. I did not know about this book until I saw the movie last month. During the brutal lashing scenes and the heart breaking scene of a mother separated from her children, you could hear a pin drop in the theater.
I left the movie theater, frantically looking in the Amazon app for the book. After I finished the book, I felt that same sense of being speechless that I felt after the movie. What can you possible say that would do it justice?
I recently read The Invention of Wings, an amazing book and said that the depiction of slavery here felt so real, but it is in Solomon Northup's memoir that we can see the reality of what slavery was about. He tells it with such eloquence.
This should be part of the curriculum for every course in American History.

[Jason Koivu · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful and apparently true firsthand account from a free black man sold into slavery and his first to be free again.

Twelve Years a Slave is gut-wrenching stuff written by an immensely readable writer. Northup's journey is incredible...almost too incredible to believe. One has to continually remind oneself that he was not born into slavery, nor was he taken from overseas. His education is evident. This is no ignorant man denied an education and made to struggle along communicating with English as an untaught second language. In his accounts of his time upon Louisiana plantations he often is clearly more intelligent than his masters. So accustomed have we become to hearing former slave accounts relayed in some kind of pidgin English that it makes this cleanly and concisely related narrative seem like a fabrication.

The brutality is so finely detailed, the complete lack of justice so well elucidated and the story unfolded so seamlessly, that a reader wouldn't be faulted for mistaking Northup for an established novelist.

Twelve Years a Slave is gripping for its subject and execution, and I highly recommend it.

[Camille · Rating 5 out of 5]

Required Reading

[kisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

12 Years a Slave is probably the most unique slave book that I've read so far because I can't say that I have ever read about a free person being kidnapped and sold into slavery. The concept was new to me and I imagine it was probably very common considering that is full profit for a slave trader (not having to buy a slave and then sale for profit). I can't say that I absolutely loved his book. I also can't say that I believe most of what was written to be a fact. What I believe is that he was kidnapped, drugged and brutalized and then sold. I also believe he gained his freedom. But I must admit that I have my doubts about a lot of the "meat" inbetween. For that reason alone I took away a star. I took another star away because it was a very dry read and filled with unnecessary information. I think everyone should read it at least once. I believe it is an important book and I can't believe that I didn't know who Solomon was before it was choosen by a member in my bookclub! It was a bit disappointing because I was a bit bored with Solomon's story and was more interested in some of the side characters (Patsey, Celeste, and Eliza). The end was rushed. I would have loved a full chapter or two once he returned home. But 3 stars I think will suffice for this sad story.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Distressing, powerful and fascinating. This offers up an interesting, and in some ways, singular perspective into a part in history. Although some people may compare it to other narratives of the same time and find them more valid, I disagree - this is one mans experience of Slavery in the south and an experience equally worth reading about.

[Aakanksha Jain · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a true story of a free man who is forced into slavery. Solomon Northup was born and brought up in Saratoga County, New York, married to Anne, and had three children. He was tricked by two men named Brown and Hamilton, they kidnapped him and sold in Washington. He was a slave for 12 years under different masters. One of them is Edwin Epps, who is a drunkard and has no humanity. He was merciless, and for his entertainment, he beats the slaves to death.

In the words of the author, my back is thick with scars for protesting my freedom. They didn't only steal his freedom but everything he stands for. When he tried to tell the truth, he was beaten ruthlessly. They changed his name to Platt and sold to a far land where he has to accept his destiny and hides the truth in order to survive. He knows if he ever utters a single word and tells anybody that he is a free man, his master will kill him. So, he does all the hard work and endures beatings like every other slave.

All the slaves feared their masters, but Solomon sometimes gets an eye-to-eye that nearly costs him his life many times. He still hoped to be free again and return to his family. He laid out plans to escape, also tried to contact his friends and family. But he got betrayed, and the hope is diminishing day by day. Until a savior came to his life and made a mission to reach Solomon's family so they can rescue him.

Solomon Northup obtained freedom in January 1853 and wrote this book the same year, which is considered as the best slave narrative of all time. This novel gives insight into the slavery practice, judicial authorities of different states, inhumane punishments for black people. The author also accords the treatment towards other slaves; he witnessed in those 12 years. It is a heart-wrenching story, and one of the best classics I've ever read. Without a doubt, pick this book and read it asap.

Read more here - https://www.bookscharming.com/

[Amit · Rating 5 out of 5]

5.0 ⭐️

GENRE - NON FICTION / MEMOIRS

A heart wrenching biography / Memoirs of Solomon Northup who was born a freeman in the state of Newyork, United States. A hardworking farmer with a decent education was kidnapped on the pretext of being given a job in Washington D.C. where he was drugged and sold into slavery.
He was able to obtain freedom after 12 years being a slave under several masters.

Upon his release in 1853 Solomon Northup penned and published his memoirs by the same name “12 years a slave”

Loved every bit of the book,the 12 years for Solomon Northup was a living hell, the book describes how one innocence can be taken for granted and how at that period of time life was for Black African Americans in the Southern states of the United States. A must read book if you have interest in reading about slavery.

Thank You 😊 ❤️🫡

[Constantine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3.0/5.0

The subject of this book is very hard to read especially because it is a non-fiction. Slavery just shows the ugly face of humanity and the ugly face of United States in the 19800s. The narration and the writing of this book are really good and easy to grasp especially since this is considered a classic. I cant say this is the best book I have read on this subject but definitely it is a decent one.

In the book, we follow Solomon's life who is a free man but then he is kidnapped and enslaved because he is a black man! From there we see how he struggled with his life to regain his freedom again and be a free man. I liked the parts of this book where we got to see what Solomon has to go through but there were many parts that I felt were boring and not interesting to me like talking about the plantation and how to grow cane or cotton. Those parts did not appeal to me.

If we have to think about it, slavery crime was being widely practiced in the USA in less than 200 years ago! This is not a long time ago. But when we think about how a black man (Obama) became a US president someone will say that the country has advanced so much faster to get rid of all that terrible racism behind it. That might have been a step forward however when the current president is a well-known racist who wants to isolate the USA by building walls and banning people of different colors to get in the country by terming their origin countries as s*****es then you get the idea that the USA has a very long way to go in terms of equality and freedom which makes it not fit to talk about freedom or equality. The USA before 200 years ago was still selling and buying black people as slaves while say another country like Persia has banned slavery in the year 539 BC when its king Cyrus The Great has prohibited this practice. That is more than 2500 years ago!!

[Duane Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

The gut wrenching account, apparently true, of Solomon Northrup, a free black man, with wife and children living in New York State. He is kidnapped and sold as a slave, then shipped south to work on the plantations in Bayou Boeuf Louisiana. He spends most of the twelve years under the cruel tyranny of a sadistic plantation owner named Epps. His eventual escape and return to New York and his family occurs only after a series of events that aren't much short of a miracle. The narrative is painfully difficult to read and is a reminder of the tragedy that was inflicted on generations of a people that lived, suffered, and died in bondage.

[B. P. Rinehart · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I can speak of Slavery only so far as it came under my own observation—only so far as I have known and experienced it in my own person. My object is, to give a candid and truthful statement of facts: to repeat the story of my life, without exaggeration, leaving it for others to determine, whether even the pages of fiction present a picture of more cruel wrong or a severer bondage."

I feel intense guilt saying this, but I read this book after seeing the movie. I don't simply mean the film in theaters as of November 2013, but the old Gordon Parks directed tv-movie called Solomon Northup's Odyssey. So I should have tracked this one down before watching that amazing film that is out now. That said, this book is incredible in its scope and detail.

Northup's book distinguishes itself because it is a slave narrative written by someone not born and raised a slave. He describes his family history, the circumstances of his kidnapping, the history of his life in bondage and his rescue, and the mechanism and culture of Slavery in great detail. He tries his best not to leave any little detail to the imagination, so if you know nothing about Slavery in the United States, this is the book you should pick-up first. It is a story so real and sadly so relevant given the problem of human-trafficking and slavery that still exist.

The thing I find interesting about the autobiographies of slaves is the variety of experience from the different perspectives. Most Americans, if they read any Slave Narratives at all, will read Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, an American Slave. I, myself, feel that Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is the best slave narrative I ever read (as a part of The Classic Slave Narratives). Not much more to do beyond recommending you check this book out and letting Mr. Northup have the last word:

"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...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."

[Chrissie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slavery is an abomination. The United States was from its independence from England a nation that relied heavily on slavery. It was not a land of equality and it did not offer freedom for all.

This book is an autobiography written by Solomon Northup, a free Black kidnapped and taken into slavery for twelve years. He was from Upper-state New York. He played the fiddle. Given a proposition to earn extra money doing just this, he agreed to travel to Washington D.C. It was here he was kidnapped and illegally sold into slavery. This was in 1841. In 1853 through the help of a white Canadian he regained his freedom. Within a few months his story was published. According to Wiki, "The first scholarly edition of Northup's memoir, co-edited in 1968 by Sue Eakin and Joseph Logsdon, carefully retraced and validated the account and concluded it to be accurate." He worked on three plantations in Louisiana.

This is an excellent book to read after Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad; it gives you the personal story of the historical events summarized in Foner's book.

I liked this book because it shows how history played out in ONE person's life. What I admire most is the dignity with which Solomon Northup relates his tale. This is no sobfest. It is without melodrama. This isn't necessary given that the events themselves are so terrible. I admire his restraint. I admire that he details other aspects than his own tragic events. He talks of Christmas celebrations and cotton and sugar cane production, clothing and meals and food and of course the injustices committed. The writing is clear and straightforward, as well as the audiobook narration by Hugh Quarshie. I did sometimes wish I could have questioned the author about facts that seemed a bit unclear.

A three star book IS worth reading. I feel I must repeat this over and over again.

[Lela · Rating 4 out of 5]

"There may be humane masters, as there certainly are inhuman ones--there may be slaves well-clothed, well-fed, and happy, as there surely are those half-clad, half-starved and miserable; nevertheless, the institution that tolerates such wrong and inhumanity as I have witnesses is a cruel, unjust, and barbarous one, Men may write fictions portraying lowly life as it is, or as it is not--may expatiate with owlish gravity upon the bliss of ignorance--discourse flippantly from arm chairs of the pleasures of slave life; but let them toil with him in the field--sleep with him in the cabin--feed with him on husks; let them behold him scourged, hunted, trampled on, and they will come back with another story in their mouths. Let them know the heart of the poor slave--learn his secret thoughts--thoughts he dare not utter in the hearing of white man; let them sit by him in the silent watches of the night--converse with him in trustful confidence of 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,' and they will find ninety-nine out of every hundred are intelligent enough to understand their situation, and to cherish in their bosoms the love of freedom, as passionately as themselves."

These words found in the book written by Solomon Northrup about his 12 years as a slave in the 1840/1850's say so much about the history of the US and all the darkness in our past. I didn't learn anything I didn't already know about the dreadful institution of slavery but it was enlightening to read a first hand experience of the horror of a free Black man kidnapped and sold into slavery in Texas and Louisiana. He survived by wit, cunning and by being smarter than white human cockroaches (my apology to the insect) around him. My heart ached for all the thousands of souls who didn't make it out of bondage.

It's hard to read because of the sordid and painful content and I had to take time away from it. The writing is good, though written in a very old style and syntax and I found the narrative fascinating. Highly recommended for those who can bear it.

[Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW!! What a book! This is a must read! It's hard to imagine being taken away from your home and made a slave for 12 long years. It was a hard read, but again a must read.