Reflect on Solomon Northup’s ‘A Slave’s Christmas’

By Alan J. Singer

Solomon Northup was a free Black man and a citizen of New York State where he lived in Saratoga Springs with his wife and three children. In 1841, Northup was kidnapped by slave traders, who drugged him and stole his freedom papers, while on a trip to Washington DC. Northup was then transported in chains to Louisiana where he was sold into slavery. In Louisiana, Northup worked on sugar and cotton plantations until he was able to smuggle a letter to his wife and friends in New York. Using a New York State law designed to protect free Black citizens from being sold into slavery, they secured his freedom through the courts. Northup was finally released from bondage after twelve years as a slave.

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Source: History News Network