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"Twelve Years A Slave"...
"Twelve Years A Slave"...
Item # 646563
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January 20, 1853
NEW YORK DAILY TIMES, Jan. 20, 1853
* Twelve Years a Slave
* Solomon Northup
* Kidnapped into slavery
The front page has a detailed account of the 1841 abduction and subsequent enslavement of freedman Solomon Northup as described in his 1853 memoir "Twelve Years a Slave" and depicted in the 2013 Oscar-winning film based on his account. Second column heads announce: "THE KIDNAPPING CASE. Narrative of the Seizure and Recovery of Solomon Northrup" "Interesting Disclosures". The article takes 2 1/2 columns.
Solomon Northup was born a free man & married a free woman of color and started his family. During a trip to Washington, DC, the farmer and violinist was drugged, kidnapped, and sold into slavery for a period of twelve years, the majority of which were spent under the ownership of a cruel and punishing master. In 1853 Northup regained his freedom thanks to the efforts of an itinerant Canadian carpenter named Samuel Bass with whom Northup had confided his story of enslavement.
Solomon Northup [erroneously spelled both Northrup and Northrop in this and other publications of the day] and his horrific experience garnered national attention as the newly free Northup worked with his Northern allies to prosecute the slave traders in Washington, D.C. who were responsible for his kidnapping. The unfolding story documented in this newspaper account was of major interest in a country that was increasingly fractured along Northern and Southern lines. The article has a prefacing paragraph: "We have obtained from Washington the subjoined statement of the circumstances attending the seizure and recovery of the negro man SOLOMON NORTHROP, whose case has excited so high a degree of interest. The material facts in the history of the transaction have already been given, but this narrative will be found a more complete and authentic record than has yet appeared:..." and what follows is the text (see for portions).
NOTE: this same title and date sold in auction recently for $738.
Eight pages, very nice condition. A bit fragile and should be handled carefully.
Category: Pre-Civil War
No Longer Available
