Twelve Years a Slave

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.