Solomon Northup, born as a free man to an emancipated slave, recalls his accounts of being sold into slavery and the torturous life he lived, in the autobiography 12 Years a Slave. Solomon lived in upper New York where he married a woman and began his family. Solomon was a talented fiddle player. Two con men offered him work in the circus playing the fiddle. They rejoiced at his skills; however, they took him to a restaurant, drugged him and then sold him into the deep south. For 12 years he was a slave named Platt. He started on a plantation where he was close to the end as he was almost hung by a slave patroller and two other men.

He was then sent to a different plantation because it was no longer safe for Platt there. He was sent to a new cotton plantation where he was not treated well at all. At this stay, he was whipped many times. He made friends with a girl named Patsey and they helped each other survive. He also made friends with a white man from Canada. He told this man of his freedom and how he wished this man would write a letter to his family up north to send him his freedom papers. Not long after the man left, men from the North came down to the deep south and retrieved Solomon, taking him back to New York and to his home to be reunited with his family. …show more content…
One would think an account of your life would be exaggerated or seem harsher than reality, but after doing some research, I have found most of the incidents of his narrative have been verified by scholars. Although most historical documents are subject to a type of bias and excludes detail to appeal to one side over the other; it is considered that as far as slave narratives go, Northup is said to have one of the most