12 Years a Slave - Hardcover

Solomon Northup

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1631680080 ISBN 13: 9781631680083

Publisher: Graymalkin Media, 2014

Synopsis

The shocking, true story of Solomon Northup, a free black man, who lived with his wife and children in Saratoga, New York, in 1841. An accomplished violinist, he is lured into a touring job by two men but awakens to find himself chained to the floor after being drugged. He is transported to a cotton plantation in the American South, where he is eventually sold to abusive slave driver Edwin Epps. Northup spends twelve harrowing years as a slave before his release. His story, described by the Detroit Tribune as "the most remarkable book ever issued from the American press," is a testimony to the strength of one man's spirit and his remarkable will to survive. Now a major motion picture.

About this title

Review:

"For sheer drama, few accounts of slavery match Solomon Northup's tale of abduction from freedom and forcible enslavement." --Ira Berlin, from the Introduction "When I read ["Twelve Years a Slave"] for the first time, it was like the first time I read Anne Frank's diary. And I wondered to myself, 'Why isn't this book on everyone's bookshelf.' . . . For me, it's a classic. It should be in every school." --Steve McQueen, director of the film adaptation of "Twelve Years a Slave, "in "Entertainment Weekly" "Frightening, gripping and inspiring . . . Northup's story seems almost biblical, structured as it is as a descent and resurrection narrative of a protagonist who, like Christ, was 33 at the time of his abduction. . . . Northup reminds us of the fragile nature of freedom in any human society and the harsh reality that whatever legal boundaries existed between so-called free states and slave states in 1841, no black man, woman or child was permanently safe." "--Henry Louis Gates, Jr., "The Root"" "A moving, vital testament to one of slavery's 'many thousands gone' who retained his humanity in the bowels of degradation. It is also a chilling insight into the 'peculiar institution.'" --"Saturday Review"

From the Back Cover:

This story of the abduction of a free Negro adult from the North and his enslavement in the South--provides a sensational element which cannot be matched in any of the dozens of narratives written by former slaves. 'Think of it: For thirty years a man, wit all man's hopes, fears and aspirations--with a wife and children to call him by the endearing names of husband and father--with a home, humble it may be, but still a home...then for twelve years a thing, a chattel personal, classed with mules and horses....Oh! it is horrible. It chills the blood to think that such are.'

About this edition

• Publisher: Graymalkin Media
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1631680080
• ISBN 13: 9781631680083
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 249