Twelve Years a Slave Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, from a Cotton Plantation near the Red River in Louisiana

"Twelve Years a Slave" by Solomon Northup is a true story from the 1800s about a free Black man’s nightmare descent into slavery. The book follows Northup’s unbelievable journey after being tricked and kidnapped, ripped away from his family in New York, and forced into a life of brutal servitude in Louisiana. Northup paints a stark and honest picture of the everyday horrors and cruel treatment he witnessed and experienced as a slave for twelve long years, focusing on the pain of losing his freedom and the constant yearning for his loved ones back home. The narrative starts with Northup as a free man, highlighting his peaceful life playing the violin and working his farm, before his world is turned upside down by deceiving strangers who lure him away with promises of work and then sell him into bondage.