Bibliograph

Twelve years a slave, Solomon Northup ; introduction by Ira Berlin ; general editor, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. ; foreword by Steve McQueen

Type

Label

Twelve years a slave, Solomon Northup ; introduction by Ira Berlin ; general editor, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. ; foreword by Steve McQueen

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references and index

resource.biographical

autobiography

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Twelve years a slave

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

869772675

Responsibility statement

Solomon Northup ; introduction by Ira Berlin ; general editor, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. ; foreword by Steve McQueen

Series statement

Penguin classics

Summary

Describes the life of Solomon Northup, a free Black man from Saratoga, N.Y., who was kidnapped in 1841 and forced into slavery in Louisiana for twelve yearsPerhaps the best written of all the slave narratives, 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. After his rescue, Northup published this exceptionally vivid and detailed account of slave life. It became an immediate bestseller and today is recognized for its unusual insight and eloquence as one of the very few portraits of American slavery produced by someone as educated as Solomon Northup, or by someone with the dual perspective of having been both a free man and a slave.--Page [4] of cover

resource.variantTitle

12 years a slave

Classification