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Cover of Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup

Twelve Years a Slave

Solomon Northup

  • 234 pages · about 4 hours
  • First published 1853
  • 1,029 editions
  • Free to read
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1 About this book

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.

Good for readers who want: history, a true life story, and a book they can read free online.

  • History
  • Biography
  • African americans, biography
  • Slavery, united states
  • United states, history
  • Personal Memoirs
  • Social science
  • Anthropology

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3 About Solomon Northup

1808–1863

Solomon Northup (July 10, c. 1807/1808 — unknown; after 1857) was an American abolitionist and the primary author of the memoir Twelve Years a Slave. A free-born American of mixed race from New York, he was the son of a freed slave and a free woman of color. Northup was a professional violinist, farmer, and landowner in Washington County, New York.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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