Solomon Northup


Solomon Northup was an American abolitionist and the primary author of the memoir Twelve Years a Slave. A free-born American of mixed race from New York, he was the son of a freed slave and a free woman of color. Northup was a professional violinist, farmer, and landowner in Washington County, New York. In 1841, he was offered a traveling musician's job and went to Washington, D.C. ; there, he was drugged and kidnapped into slavery. He was shipped to New Orleans on April 24, 1841 by James H. Birch aboard the Brig Orleans from Richmond, VA. Northup was purchased by a planter and held as a slave for nearly twelve years in the Red River region of Louisiana; mostly in Avoyelles Parish. He remained enslaved until he met Samuel Bass, a Canadian working on his plantation who helped get word to New York, where state law provided aid to free New York citizens who had been kidnapped and sold into slavery. His family and friends enlisted the aid of the governor of New York, Washington Hunt, and Northup regained his freedom on January 3, 1853.
The slave trader in Washington, D.C., James H. Birch, was arrested and tried, but acquitted because District of Columbia law at the time prohibited Northup as a black man from testifying against white people. Later, in New York State, his northern kidnappers were located and charged, but the case was tied up in court for two years because of jurisdictional challenges and finally dropped when Washington, D.C. was found to have jurisdiction. The D.C. government did not pursue the case. Those who had kidnapped and enslaved Northup received no punishment.
In his first year of freedom, Northup wrote and published a memoir, Twelve Years a Slave. He lectured on behalf of the abolitionist movement, giving more than two dozen speeches throughout the Northeast about his experiences, to build momentum against slavery. He largely disappeared from the historical record after 1857, although a letter later reported him alive in early 1863; some commentators thought he had been kidnapped again, but historians believe it unlikely, as he would have been considered too old to bring a good price. The details of his death have never been documented.
Northup's memoir was adapted and produced as the 1984 television film Solomon Northup's Odyssey and the 2013 feature film 12 Years a Slave. The latter won three Academy Awards, including Best Picture, at the 86th Academy Awards.

Early life

Solomon Northup was born in the town of Minerva in Essex County, New York, on July 10, 1807 or July 10, 1808. His mother was a free woman of color, which meant that her sons, Solomon and his older brother Joseph, were born free according to the principle of partus sequitur ventrem. Solomon described his mother as a quadroon, meaning that she was one-quarter African, and three-quarters European.
His father, Mintus, was a freedman who had been enslaved in his early life by the Northup family. Born in Rhode Island, he was taken with the Northups when they moved to Hoosick, New York, in Rensselaer County. His master, Henry Northrop, manumitted Mintus in his will, after which Mintus adopted the surname Northup. His surname was sometimes spelled Northrup in records. Upon attaining his freedom, Mintus married and moved to Minerva with his wife.
Northup said his father was "a man respected for his industry and integrity". A farmer, Mintus was successful enough to own land and thus meet the state's property requirements for the right to vote. His sons received what was considered to be a good education for free black people at that time. Northup and his brother worked on the family farm as boys. He spent his leisure time playing the violin and reading books.
File:OLD FORT HOUSE FT EDWARD NY v3.jpg|thumb|Old Fort House is a historic house located in the town of Fort Edward, New York. The house, the oldest house in Washington County, New York, is operated as a local history museum. Solomon Northup lived in Fort Edward as a child, he was married there, and he started his family in the town.
Mintus moved his family to Washington County, New York, and worked on several farms owned by the Northups. From Minerva, they moved to the farm of Clark Northup near Slyborough in Granville, Washington County, for several years. The family of four then lived at Alden Farm, a short distance north of Sandy Hill. They later moved to an area east of Fort Edward on the road from Fort Edward to Argyle, where Mintus lived until his death. Mintus died at Fort Edward on November 22, 1829, and was interred at the Hudson Falls Baker Cemetery. His mother died during Northup's enslavement. According to her daughter-in-law Anne and Nicholas C. Northup, she died around 1846 or 1847 in Oswego County, New York.

Marriage and family

Solomon Northup married Anne Hampton on December 25, 1829, one month after the death of his father, or on November 22, 1829, according to sworn depositions by Anne Northup, Josiah Hand, and Timothy Eddy, the last of whom was the justice of the peace who performed the wedding. They were married in Fort Edward. Anne, the daughter of William Hampton, was born March 14, 1808. She grew up in Sandy Hill. A "woman of color", she was of African, European, and Native American descent. They had three children: Elizabeth, Margaret, and Alonzo.
At the start of their marriage, the couple lived at Fort House, "the old yellow house", at the southern end of Fort Edward. In 1830, they moved to Kingsbury, both of which were small communities in Washington County. After selling their farm in 1834, the Northups moved to Saratoga Springs, New York, for its employment opportunities.
Anne was known for her culinary expertise. She worked for local taverns that served food and drink, at the United States Hotel and elite hotels such as the Pavilion Hotel. When court was in session at the county seat of Fort Edward, she worked at Sherrill's Coffee House in Sandy Hill.
After Northup was kidnapped, Anne and her oldest daughter, Elizabeth, went to work as domestic servants in New York City at Madame Jumel's Mansion on the East River in the summer of 1841. Alonzo was with them. Margaret, their youngest daughter, went to Hoboken, New Jersey, to live with a friend of Madame Jumel, who also had a young daughter.
After about two years, Anne brought the family back together in Saratoga, where she worked as a hotel cook, including at Carpenter's Hotel in Glens Falls. In 1852, she learned of her husband's fate and asked for Henry B. Northup's help to free him. A letter was prepared to the Governor of New York, Washington Hunt, based upon a deposition given by Anne Northup to Justice of the Peace Charles Hughes on November 19, 1852. He gathered the information to prove that Northup was free and went to Louisiana to bring him back to New York.
Northup returned to Sandy Hill on January 21, 1853, and reunited with his wife and children. By 1855, he was living with his daughter Margaret Stanton and her family in Queensbury, Warren County, New York. He purchased land in Glens Falls near his daughter. In his memoir, Northup described his love for his wife as "sincere and unabated" since the time of their marriage, and his children as "beloved".
While Northup gave talks about his book around the country, Anne worked in Bolton Landing on Lake George at the hotel Mohican House. Author David Fiske states that Northup seems to have had a difficult time overcoming the years in which he was enslaved. He was said to have drunk a lot and did not seem to spend a lot of time with his wife. By the late 1850s, it was unknown what had become of Northup, and he was not listed with his family in the 1860 census.
After selling their land in Glens Falls, Anne Northup moved to the household of her daughter and son-in-law, Margaret and Philip Stanton, in Moreau, Saratoga County, where she again was recorded as married. However, Solomon was not with the family. Anne did laundry, cooking and chores for a Moreau man. In 1870, she worked as a cook in the household of Burton C. Dennis, who kept the Middleworth House hotel in Sandy Hill. Anne Northup lived in Kingsbury in Washington County, New York, in 1875. By that time, she was identified as a widow. She died in 1876 while performing her chores in Moreau. One obituary, while praising Anne, says of Solomon Northup that "after exhibiting himself through the country became a worthless vagabond".

Life

Canal worker, farmer, and violin player

In the winter of the year that he married, Northup worked as a laborer repairing the Champlain Canal. He then bought two horses and contracted to tow lumber on rafts to Troy from Lake Champlain beginning the following spring. He employed two workers. He worked on other waterways in upstate New York and he traveled to northern New York and Montreal, Canada. When the canal was closed down, he cut lumber during the winter of 1831–1832. He worked as a farm laborer in the Sandy Hill area.
He arranged to farm corn and oats on part of the Alden farm where his father lived in Kingsbury. He built a fine reputation as a fiddler and was in high demand to play for dances in surrounding villages. The couple had become prosperous due to the income Anne received as a cook and that Northup made farming and playing the violin.
The couple moved to Saratoga Springs in March 1834, where he drove a horse-drawn taxi for a businessman. During the tourist season, he worked for the United States Hotel, where he was employed by Judge James M. Marvin, a part-owner of the hotel. He played his violin at several well-known hotels in Saratoga Springs. He also worked on the construction of the Troy and Saratoga Railroad. He had become a regular customer and friend of William Perry and Cephus Parker, who owned several shops in town. Over the seven years that the Northups lived in Saratoga Springs, they had made ends meet and dressed their children in fine clothes, but they had been unable to prosper as hoped.
In March 1841, Anne went 20 miles to Sandy Hill, where she ran the kitchen at Sherrill's Coffee House during the court session. She may have taken their oldest daughter, Elizabeth, with her. Their two youngest children went to stay with their aunt. Northup stayed in Saratoga Springs to look for employment until the tourist season.