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Twelve Years a Slave

by Solomon Northup (1808–)

  • Free to read
  • 5 hours to read
  • 45 chapters
  • Reading level: 8th & 9th grade

"Twelve Years a Slave" by Solomon Northup is a memoir published in 1853. Northup, a free black man and musician from New York, recounts how he was deceived, kidnapped, and sold into slavery in the Deep South. His narrative details twelve years of bondage on Louisiana plantations, documenting the brutal realities of slavery—from slave markets to plantation life—before finally securing his freedom. Published shortly after "Uncle Tom's Cabin," this firsthand account became a bestseller with 30,000 copies sold.

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  • African Americans · Biography
  • Enslaved persons · United States · Biography
  • Enslaved persons' writings, American
  • Northup, Solomon, 1808-1863?
  • Plantation life · Louisiana · History · 19th century
  • Slavery · Louisiana · History · 19th century

Read the opening

Chapter I

Introductory—Ancestry—The Northup Family—Birth and
Parentage—Mintus Northup—Marriage with Anne Hampton—Good
Resolutions—Champlain Canal—Rafting Excursion to
Canada—Farming—The Violin—Cooking—Removal to Saratoga—Parker
and Perry—Slaves and Slavery—The Children—The Beginning of
Sorrow, 17

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Contents

Show all 45 chapters
  1. Chapter I
  2. Chapter II
  3. Chapter III
  4. Chapter IV
  5. Chapter V
  6. Chapter VI
  7. Chapter VII
  8. Chapter VIII
  9. Chapter IX
  10. Chapter X
  11. Chapter XI
  12. Chapter XII
  13. Chapter XIII
  14. Chapter XIV
  15. Chapter XV
  16. Chapter XVI
  17. Chapter XVII
  18. Chapter XVIII
  19. Chapter XIX
  20. Chapter XX
  21. Chapter XXI
  22. Chapter XXII
  23. Chapter I
  24. Chapter II
  25. Chapter III
  26. Chapter IV
  27. Chapter V
  28. Chapter VI
  29. Chapter VII
  30. Chapter VIII
  31. Chapter IX
  32. Chapter X
  33. Chapter XI
  34. Chapter XII
  35. Chapter XIII
  36. Chapter XIV
  37. Chapter XV
  38. Chapter XVI
  39. Chapter XVII
  40. Chapter XVIII
  41. Chapter XIX
  42. Chapter XX
  43. Chapter XXI
  44. Chapter XXII
  45. Appendix

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About this edition

This free edition of Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #45631, released 2014-05-11. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Biographies, History - American, History - Modern (1750+), Sociology.

Summary provided by Project Gutenberg (automatically generated).