Solomon Northup
Solomon Northup (July 1808 , † around 1863 ) was an African-American who was forced into slavery as a free American citizen and became famous for an autobiographical book about his twelve-year ordeal called Twelve Years a Slave .
Life
Solomon grew up as one of two sons of the freed slave Mintus Northup and his wife in New York State . His father was a successful farmer. The two sons Solomon and Joseph, born in freedom, not only acquired various agricultural and manual skills in their childhood and youth, but also received an above-average school education. Solomon also learned to play the violin , which he already mastered with virtuosity as a young adult.
In 1829 Solomon married Northup and had three children with his wife Anne, Elizabeth, Margaret and Alonzo. The family owned a farm in Washington County and Northup also took on a variety of manual jobs. In the years before his kidnapping, Northup had also made a name for himself as a violinist and received various lucrative engagements in large hotels and variety theaters. In one of these engagements, which took him to Washington, DC , he was betrayed by his white employers and, as a supposedly escaped slave, was abducted by human traffickers to New Orleans and from there to rural Louisiana , where he spent twelve years as a slave under a different name was forced to work on various farms. After several failed attempts to escape, he managed to get in touch with his family in 1853, who were finally able to secure his release and return to New York.
Solomon took the men responsible for his abduction to justice. Since he was not allowed to testify against whites in the capital of the country, he lost his trial against the slave trader James H. Birch. After a lengthy trial in New York, his kidnappers, Hamilton and Brown, also managed to avoid punishment.
His penned in his release book Twelve Years a Slave however, gained along with the year before published Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe great contemporary notoriety and sparked broad public sympathy. Northup subsequently appeared as a speaker at events of the popular abolitionists and actively campaigned against slavery . He was also involved in the Underground Railroad network, which worked to free slaves and help them escape to safe places.
There is no reliable information about the last years of his life or the date and circumstances of his death. His track is lost after 1863 at the latest; It is believed, among other things, that he may have been kidnapped and re-enslaved (which is, however, controversial as he was considered too old for that) or led a vagabond life. The place of his burial is also unknown, searches for it have so far been unsuccessful.
Aftermath
Northup's life story and his autobiography were largely forgotten in the 20th century, until the book was rediscovered by historians in the 1960s and has since been re-published in annotated versions and has been the subject of various historical considerations.
In 2013, a highly acclaimed literary film adaptation called 12 Years a Slave hit theaters. Directed by Steve McQueen and Northup by Chiwetel Ejiofor . The film was named Best Picture in 2014 at the Oscars .
literature
- Fiske, David; Brown, Clifford W. & Seligman, Rachel: Solomon Northup: The Complete Story of the Author of Twelve Years a Slave 2013.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ History Mystery: What Happened To Solomon Northup? In: New York Almanack. February 26, 2018, accessed June 21, 2020 (American English).
- ^ Death of Solomon Northup, author of 12 Years A Slave, still a mystery. Accessed June 21, 2020 (English).
- ↑ Solomon's Wisdom. October 16, 2005, accessed June 21, 2020 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Northup, Solomon |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 1808 |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1863 |