Solomon Northup was an American abolitionist and author known for his 1853 memoir, 12 Years a Slave. Born free in New York, he was kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841, enduring twelve years of bondage in Louisiana. Northup is an authority on the antebellum South because his narrative provides a rare, meticulously detailed firsthand account of the slave trade from the perspective of a free man illegally enslaved, offering invaluable historical insight.
