In 'Twelve Years a Slave', Solomon Northup recounts the harrowing true story of his kidnapping and sale into slavery in the pre-Civil War America. As a free African American man, Northup's journey reveals the brutal realities of slavery and the resilience of the human spirit. His vivid, gripping narrative highlights the moral complexities of his captors and the inhumanity of the system that ensnared him. Through his struggle for survival and eventual escape, Northup confronts not only physical chains but the psychological toll of oppression. This powerful memoir continues to resonate today, challenging readers to reflect on history's darkest chapters.
By Solomon Northup
Published: 2012
"I had not only my own freedom to lose, but the freedom of my children, and a thousand free men and women had been sold, like cattle, into bondage."
Now the major motion picture that won the 2014 Academy Award for Best Picture, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, and Lupita Nyong’o, and directed by Steve McQueen Perhaps the best written of all the slave narratives, Twelve Years a Slave is a harrowing memoir about one of the darkest periods in American history. It recounts how Solomon Northup, born a free man in New York, was lured to Washington, D.C., in 1841 with the promise of fast money, then drugged and beaten and sold into slavery. He spent the next twelve years of his life in captivity on a Louisiana cotton plantation. After his rescue, Northup published this exceptionally vivid and detailed account of slave life. 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. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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“I had not only my own freedom to lose, but the freedom of my children, and a thousand free men and women had been sold, like cattle, into bondage.”
Twelve Years a Slave
By Solomon Northup
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Solomon Northup (1808-1863) was an African American abolitionist and writer, best known for his 1853 memoir 'Twelve Years a Slave', which recounts his experiences as a free man kidnapped and sold into slavery. Northup's poignant narrative details the brutality of slavery and the resilience of the human spirit. His writing is characterized by a vivid and compelling style that combines personal experience with a broader social critique, making it a pivotal text in American literature and an essential contribution to the abolitionist movement.
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