Twelve Years a Slave
ISBN 978-1843914716 | | |
301.45 | ||
Text | Twelve Years a Slave at Wikisource |
Twelve Years a Slave is an 1853
The work was published by Derby & Miller of Auburn, New York[1] eight years before the American Civil War and soon after Harriet Beecher Stowe's best-selling novel about slavery, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), to which Northup's book lent factual support. Northup's book, dedicated to Stowe, sold 30,000 copies, making it a bestseller in its own right.[3]
Although the memoir was published in several editions in the 19th century and later cited by scholarly works on
The memoir has been adapted as two film versions, produced as the 1984 PBS television film Solomon Northup's Odyssey and the 2013 film 12 Years a Slave, which won multiple Oscars including Best Picture.[7]
Synopsis
In his home town of
Transported by ship to Theophilus Freeman's slave jail in New Orleans, Northup and other enslaved black people contracted smallpox and one died. In transit, Northup implored a sympathetic sailor to send a letter to his family. The letter arrived safely, but, lacking knowledge of his final destination, Northup's family was unable to effect his rescue.
Northup's first owner was
After being beaten for claiming his free status in Washington, D.C., Northup in the ensuing 12 years did not reveal his true history again to a single person, slave or owner. Finally he confided his story to
Northup concludes his narrative with the following statement:
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. If I have failed in anything, it has been in presenting to the reader too prominently the bright side of the picture. 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.— Solomon Northup[10]
Reception and historical value
Questions were often raised about accuracy or authenticity of books about slavery, including slave narratives. Similarities between Northup's book and Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin have been noted by critics. Stowe's book was published a year before Northup's memoir but by the time she published her rebuttal to critics about accuracy in her A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, she referred to his story, which had been publicized in newspaper accounts. Stowe wrote,
It is a singular coincidence that this man was carried to a plantation in the Red River country, that same region where the scene of Tom's captivity was laid; and his account of this plantation, his mode of life there, and some incidents which he describes, form a striking parallel to that history.[11]
Northup's account confirms Stowe's fictional portrayal of conditions in Louisiana, as the area where Northup was enslaved was close to the fictional setting of Simon Legree's plantation on the Red River. Northup expresses other arguments against slavery. For instance, Uncle Tom's Cabin focuses on how the legal system prevents even kind owners from treating slaves well and how it releases cruel owners from liabilities for their treatment of slaves.[12]
Such themes appear in Northup's narrative, too. Writing about this work, Eric Herschtal noted that "Slave narratives were never intended to give an unbiased view. They were antislavery polemics meant to bring down the institution."[13] The fact that these works had a purpose was similar to other published works.[13]
Herschtal emphasizes that Northup expressed compassion in his account, quoting him: "It is not the fault of the slaveholder that he is cruel," Northup writes, "so much as it is the fault of the system under which he lives."[13] Northup's first-person account of his twelve years of bondage captured attention in the national political debate over slavery that took place in the years leading up to the Civil War. It drew endorsements from major Northern newspapers, anti-slavery organizations, and evangelical groups. It "sold three times as many copies as Frederick Douglass's slave narrative in its first two years."[13]
Northup's account describes the daily life of slaves at
Early and mid-twentieth century historians of slavery,
While Twelve Years a Slave is the best-known example of someone who was kidnapped and later freed – albeit through extraordinary efforts – historians have begun to research and present other cases. Most of the known court cases of
Reissue
After additional printings in the 19th century, the book went out of print until 1968,[6] when historians Joseph Logsdon and Sue Eakin restored it to prominence. Eakin discovered the story as a child growing up in Louisiana plantation country – the owner of a first edition showed her the book, after finding it in a former plantation home.
Years later, Logsdon had a student from an old Louisiana family who brought a copy of the original 1853 book to class; her family had owned it for more than a century. Together Logsdon and Eakin studied Northup's account, documenting it through the slave sales records of Washington, D.C., and New Orleans, by retracing his journey and bondage in Bayou Boeuf plantation country in central Louisiana and through its records, and documenting his New York State origins. They found his father's freeman's decree, and the case files for the legal work that restored Northup's freedom and prosecuted his abductors. In 1968, Eakin and Logsdon's thoroughly annotated edition of the original book was published by Louisiana State University Press, shedding new light on Northup's account and establishing its historic significance. That book has been widely used by scholars and in classrooms for more than 40 years, and is still in print.
In 1998, Logsdon was invited by scholars in upstate New York to participate in a search for Solomon's grave. However, bad weather prevented the search that year, and Logsdon died the following June 1999. In 2007, shortly before her death at age 90, Eakin completed an updated and expanded version of their book; it includes more than 150 pages of new background material, maps, and photographs. In 2013, e-book and audiobook versions of her final definitive edition were released in her honor. With permission, scholars may use Eakin's lifetime archives through The Sue Eakin Collection, Louisiana State University at Alexandria, Louisiana. The Joseph Logsdon Archives are available at the University of New Orleans.
Historian Jesse Holland noted in a 2009 interview that he had relied on Northup's memoir and detailed description of Washington in 1841 to identify the location of some slave markets in the capital. Holland has also researched the roles of African-American slaves who, as skilled laborers, helped build some of the important public buildings in Washington, including the Capitol and part of the original Executive Mansion.[17]
Editions and adaptations
Text
- Twelve Years a Slave is in the public domain; e-book versions can be downloaded from several sites and many reprints are still in print by multiple publishers (see 'External links' section)
- In 1968, historians Sue Eakin and Joseph Logsdon, both based in Louisiana, published an edited and annotated version of Northup's narrative.[18] Updated and illustrated editions of this work have since been published, including an adaptation for younger readers.
- In 2012, ISBN 978-1440829741, with co-authors Fiske, Clifford W. Brown, and Rachel Seligman.
Film
- Solomon Northup's Odyssey (1984), a PBS television film directed by Gordon Parks and starring Avery Brooks.[19][20]
- 12 Years a Slave (2013), a feature film directed by Steve McQueen and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor.[21][22]
Audiobook
- Twelve Years a Slave public domain audiobook at LibriVox
- Twelve Years a Slave, narrated by Louis Gossett Jr. (Eakin Films & Publishing, 2013)[23]
- Twelve Years a Slave, narrated by Richard Allen (Dreamscape Media, 2013)
- Twelve Years a Slave, narrated by AudioGO, 2013)
- Twelve Years a Slave, narrated by Sean Crisden (Tantor Audio, 2012)
References
- ^ a b J.C. Derby (1884), "William H. Seward", Fifty Years Among Authors, Books and Publishers, New York: G.W. Carleton & Co., pp. 62–63
- The Picayune, 6 February 1853, p. 6
- ^ a b Northup, Solomon. Twelve Years a Slave: Summary, online text at Documenting the American South, University of North Carolina, accessed 19 July 2012
- ^ "'12 Years a Slave' prompts effort to recognize work of UNO historian in reviving tale". Nola.com. Retrieved 27 September 2013.
- ^ Cieply, Michael (23 September 2013). "An Escape From Slavery, Now a Movie, Has Long Intrigued Historians". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
- ^ a b "Twelve Years A Slave by Solomon Northup". Lsupress.org. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
- ^ Cieply, Michael; Barnesmarch, Brooks (2 March 2014). "'12 Years a Slave' Claims Best Picture Oscar". The New York Times.
- Alexander Campbell.
- ^ Melancon, Meredith. "Avoyelles Parish Courthouse, Marksville". Acadiana Historical. Robert Carriker. Archived from the original on 28 February 2014. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
- ^ Northup, Solomon. Twelve Years a Slave (First ed.). p. 321.
- ^ Stowe, H. B. A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, Inkling Books, 2005 (reprint), p. 245
- S2CID 159994075.
- ^ a b c d Eric Herschtal, "The Passion of Solomon Northup" The New York Times
- ISBN 0807101508.
- ^ a b Judson E. Crump and Alfred L. Brophy, "Cornelius Sinclair's Odyssey: Freedom, Slavery, and Freedom Again in the Old South", Social Science Research Network, July 2014, UNC Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2469529, accessed 16 April 2015.
- ^ a b John Henderson, Joseph Watson, Job Brown, Thomas Bradford Junr., R. L. Kennon, Joshua Boucher, H. V. Somerville and Eric Ledell Smith, Notes and Documents: "Rescuing African American Kidnapping Victims in Philadelphia as Documented in the Joseph Watson Papers", Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 129 (2008), pp. 317, 330–332
- ^ "Jesse Holland on How Slaves Built the White House and the US Capitol". Democracynow.org. Retrieved 9 April 2012.
- ^ Sharkey, Richard P. "Noted Louisiana historian Sue Eakin of Bunkie dead at 90". The Town Talk. Retrieved 21 September 2009. [dead link]
- Vulture.com. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
- Indie Wire. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
- ^ Hannaford, Alex (4 June 2016). "12 Years A Slave: the true story of Solomon Northup". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
- Indie Wire. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
- ISBN 978-1501131332.
External links
- Digital editions
- The full text of Twelve Years a Slave at Wikisource
- Twelve Years a Slave at Standard Ebooks
- Twelve Years a Slave at Project Gutenberg
- Twelve Years a Slave public domain audiobook at LibriVox
- Twelve Years a Slave at the Internet Archive (scanned original editions with some color illustrated)
- Original sources
- Letters by John R. Smith, "Wilbur H. Siebert Collection", Houghton Library, Harvard University. Available as online images, detailing Northup's involvement in the Underground Railroad after January 1863.
- Other
- Twelve Years a Slave website, with audio excerpts by Lou Gossett Jr.; history, art and images
- Kneller, Michael. "Solomon Northup: From Freedom to Slavery to Freedom Again", Slavery in America
- "Snatched Up and Sold Into Slavery: The Story of Solomon Northup", US Trek, Odyssey (complements history curriculum for junior high and high school students)
- "New York: Solomon Northup Day – A Celebration of Freedom (Local Legacies: Celebrating Community Roots)". Library of Congress. Retrieved 9 April 2012.
- "Solomon Northup", eBlack Studies
- EDSITEment lesson Twelve Years a Slave: Analyzing Slave Narratives
- EDSITEment lesson Twelve Years a Slave: Was the Case of Solomon Northup Exceptional?