Solomon Northup (1808 - unknown: disappeared in 1863) was a free-born African-American mulatto from New York, best known for his 1853 autobiography, Twelve Years a...
He drained the drink. Just one drink. The nausea was almost instantaneous. Then his head exploded in pain. Solomon Northup's new friends led him from the tavern to the National Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue and Sixth Street, where he had awakened that morning...
KENTUCKY'S 3RD DISTRICT Tom Hayden, kingpin of the anti-Vietnam War movement of the 1960s, shaved, bought some new suits, and got elected to the California legislature. Onetime Black Panther Bobby Rush is now a Democratic congressman from Illinois. The late Paul Wellstone parlayed...
In the following excerpt, Olney provides a list of slave-narrative conventions and considers the impact of white amanuenses on the construction of slave narratives. Olney also compares the narratives of Frederick Douglass, Henry Box Brown, and Solomon Northup.
In the following essay, Worley argues that Northup's work presents a critical position on slavery, one that favorably compares with the writings of Frederick Douglass. Worley also asserts that Northup's narrative does not depend upon either a rational or providential construction.
In the following excerpt, originally published in 1979, Stepto discusses Northup's work as an example of an integrated slave narrative that places documents authenticating the slave experience into the tale.
