NORTHUP AWOKE IN THE MIDDLE OF AN April night in 1841 with his body trembling, his head throbbing, and a terrifying question in his mind: Where was he? He slowly realized that he was in a dark, dank, foul-smelling dungeon in Washington, D.C. Worse yet, he was in handcuffs and his feet were chained to the floor.
As his head cleared, Solomon managed to slip a hand into his trousers pocket, where he had placed his money and his “free papers” for safekeeping. They were gone! He checked his other pockets and found no trace of the money or the papers that proved he was one of 400,000 “free blacks” in a nation where 2.5 million African Americans were slaves.
“There must have been some mistake,” Solomon told himself. Any second now the two white men he had been traveling with would arrive to free him. But as the night wore on, he began to wonder whether these seemingly friendly men could have betrayed him.
The rising sun revealed that Solomon was in a cell with only one small window covered by thick iron bars. Soon he heard footsteps coming down the stairs. A key turned in a lock, the heavy iron door swung open, and two men entered the room where Solomon was chained.
“Well, my boy, how do you feel now?” asked one of the men, who Solomon later learned was named James Birch.
Solomon, who was 32 years old, wasn’t accustomed to being called “boy,” which was a demeaning way of addressing male slaves regardless of age. “What is the cause of my imprisonment?” Solomon demanded.
“I have bought you, and you are my slave,” said Birch, adding that he planned to send him far south to New Orleans to be sold.
“I am a free man, a resident of Saratoga Springs, New York, where I have a wife and children who are also free, and my name is Northup!” Solomon protested. Furthermore, he vowed, once he was liberated from this hellhole he would prosecute Birch for kidnapping.
Birch was enraged. He called Solomon a “black liar” and insisted that he was a runaway slave from Georgia. As Solomon continued to assert that he was a free black man from New York, Birch ordered his assistant to bring him his paddle and whip. Ripping off Solomon’s shirt, the assistant stood on his chains to pin him to the floor while Birch beat him with the paddle. From time to time Birch paused to ask whether Solomon still claimed that he had been free. Despite the intense pain, Solomon refused to say that he was a slave.
When the paddle broke, Birch picked up his whip. Soon streams of blood were pouring down Solomon’s back, and strips of skin were gouged out wherever the lash struck. Even so, Solomon still wouldn’t say what Birch demanded—that he was a fugitive slave from Georgia.
After a quarter of an hour Solomon was barely conscious and Birch’s right arm was exhausted. As he put down his whip, Birch warned Solomon, “If you ever utter again that you are entitled to your freedom or that you have been kidnapped, the punishment you have just received is nothing compared with what will follow!” Birch and his assistant then departed, slamming the big iron door behind them.
Paddling was one of many methods used by owners to humiliate and control their slaves. This scene is set in the West Indies, but Solomon Northup suffered the same punishment in Washington, D.C. (Illustration Credits 1.3)
Solomon had been beaten so savagely that for a few days he expected to die. His handcuffs and leg chains were removed but the pain from his injuries made movement difficult. His only contact with the outside world came twice a day when the assistant brought him a tin plate containing a piece of fried pork, a slice of bread, and a cup of water.
When he had healed enough to walk, he was allowed to exercise in the yard with several other black prisoners in the building. One man whom he befriended, Clemens Ray, informed him that they were in a “slave pen”—a kind of prison where James Birch held his slaves before sending them down to New Orleans to be sold. The slave pen was so close to the U.S. Capitol that Solomon could see the building’s dome from the yard.
This slave pen is similar to the one in which Solomon Northup was held. Each door led to a dark, airless cell. (Illustration Credits 1.4)
Heartsick and furious about being enslaved, Solomon enjoyed peace of mind only when he went to sleep at night. Then he would dream that he was back in Saratoga Springs with his wife and their three children. But he always awakened to the realization that he was imprisoned in a jail cell in Washington, D.C., and, in the darkness, he would weep bitter tears.
Yet he did have one hope: escape! Fleeing from the slave pen was pretty much out of the question because the building was like a fortress and was surrounded by a tall, brick wall. But perhaps the trip to New Orleans would offer an opportunity to break free from this nightmare.
ALL 13 AMERICAN COLONIES ALLOWED SLAVERY DURING the 1600s and 1700s. Not until 1780—four years after the colonies declared themselves to be the United States of America—did Pennsylvania become the first state to outlaw slavery. Other northern states also made slavery illegal, but some took their time doing so. Solomon Northup’s home state, New York, didn’t outlaw slavery until 1827.
The black mother’s status determined that of her children in the slave states. If the mother was a slave, her children were, too. If the mother was a free black, so were her children.
Solomon Northup was born in Minerva, New York, 100 miles south of the Canadian border and 200 miles north of New York City. Solomon claimed that he had entered the world “in the month of July, 1808.” Since Solomon’s mother was a free black woman, he was born free.
On his father’s side, Solomon’s ancestors had been slaves belonging to a white family named Northup. Around the year 1800 Solomon’s father, Mintus, had been freed by the terms of his owner’s will. Mintus had adopted the last name Northup to honor the family that had liberated him.
Solomon was a serious, hardworking child. When he wasn’t helping around the family farm, he loved to read. His favorite pastime, however, was playing the violin. By his teens Solomon was so skillful a fiddler that friends and neighbors hired him to perform at dances and parties.
On Christmas Day of 1829, 21-year-old Solomon Northup married Anne Hampton. Solomon liked to say that the blood of three races flowed through Anne’s veins: Native American, white, and black. The couple had three children—daughters Elizabeth and Margaret and a son, Alonzo.
In the spring of 1834 Solomon and his family settled in Saratoga Springs, a vacation resort 30 miles from Albany, the capital of New York. During the warm months when tourists flocked to Saratoga Springs to bathe in its mineral spring waters, Solomon drove a carriage for the hotels. At other times he worked as a carpenter, helping to build area railroads. In addition, Solomon earned an income from playing his violin. Meanwhile, Anne found employment as a cook in hotels and inns. By pinching pennies, Solomon and Anne managed to squeak by financially. Around Saratoga Springs, the Northups had a reputation for being a close and loving family.
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