Twelve Years a Slave Part one

The book "Twelve Years a Slave" is one man's account of his kidnapping

and being sold into slavery. Solomon Northrup was a free man born July of

1808 in the north. Mr. Northup in 1841 was met by two gentlemen who talked

about giving him a good paying job and got him to work for them for a "Circus"

They reached his point of going home and was convinced to go further with the

promise of high wages. Shortly afterward he

experienced an unpleasant sensation and became extremely ill. To make a

long story short he was supposedly taken to a physician's office where he passed

out upon awakening found himself hand-cuffed with his money gone and robbed

of his free papers. He then realized he had been kidnapped. Throughout the book he attempts to

prove his innocence and freedom by attempting to alert people, but every time he would a

whipping would proceed until he learned not to mention it at all. He finally meets an abolitionist

from the north that knew him as a free man. This man would be the biggest factor in Northup's

re-release from slavery. He was the one that told Northup's wife about him being kidnapped and

forced into slavery again. She alerted the government of New York and an investigation was

underway. It took 12 years before Solomon was finally freed from slavery.

This story really brings out the most realistic views of slavery during the 1800's. Most

slavery novels deal with the person/slave already being in the south as a slave, but this one where it is completely different, and unique. The person was already free but was captured and then turned into a slave. It does have some actual sources that were there.

But the creditability of those sources can definitely be challenged in almost every aspect you can

imagine. Although it says that NOTHING was altered from the original book, things could have

changed. Especially the sources and writings. The sources can be discredited because most of

them are only an "Honesty" thing. Most of the sources go something along the lines of "I swear

that on a day of (blank) that Solomon Northup was and is a free man since the year (blank)"

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