Solomon Northrup

Solomon Northup (1807-1867) was an American author, farmer, and musician from upstate New York. He was born a free black man, and supported his family working as a laborer after selling his family farm. His reputation as a talented fiddler was ell known, and he was recruited to join a circus as a musician; the job, however was a setup. Northup was drugged and kidnapped, sold into bondage and sent to Louisiana, where he was enslaved for twelve years. His chronicle of that experience, Twelve Years a Slave (1853) made Northup a national celebrity.