Solomon Northup Publishes Twelve Years a Slave

Solomon Northup, a free Black man from New York kidnapped into slavery in 1841, published his memoir after being rescued in 1853. The book documented his twelve years on Louisiana plantations in harrowing detail, including the sadism of overseer John Tibeats and the systematic brutality of daily enslavement. Twelve Years a Slave sold 30,000 copies in its first three years — a major abolitionist document from someone who had known both freedom and slavery.