This dream is fulfilled at the end of the book, when Solomon returns home to New York to find his wife and children alive and well. Especially during Edwin Epp’s violent, ten-year ownership, Solomon finds hope in God and the prospect of seeing his family again one day.

He also distinguishes himself as a natural at harvesting sugar cane, and a skilled carpenter-a skill which eventually leads him to cross paths with the Canadian carpenter, Bass, who helps Solomon regain his freedom. After being kidnapped, he is given a slave name: Platt. When Solomon was finally rescued, he wrote this memoir telling of his experiences in brutal detail. Solomon Northup was a free Black man in New York and a successful tradesman when he was kidnapped and sold into slavery. Born a free man in New York in 1808, he is kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841. In 2013, movie audiences flocked to see 12 Years a Slave, which told the powerful story of a free Black man kidnapped from the North in the 19th century and sold as a slave in the South. Published in 1853, Twelve Years a Slave is a harrowing, firsthand account of the horrors of American chattel slavery.

Solomon’s talent as a fiddle player provides him a sense of comfort and solace during his years as a slave and enables him to make a little money by performing at other slave owners’ social gatherings. Twelve Years a Slave Character List Solomon Northup/'Platt' Solomon Northup is the author of Twelve Years a Slave. Solomon is known to his masters and fellow slaves as Platt, a name given to him by Burch. Solomon lives as a slave for twelve years for three different masters-first, the kindhearted William Ford, then the violent John Tibeats, and finally, the exceedingly cruel and evil Edwin Epps. The two men betray Solomon, selling him into slavery to James Burch. with two new acquaintances ( Brown and Hamilton) to play the fiddle in their circus. These traits unknowingly lead him into a trap, when, needing a source of income to help his family, Solomon agrees to travel to Washington D.C. He is known by the community as an excellent fiddle player, a family man, and a hard worker. Solomon Northup, the author and protagonist of the memoir, is born a free black man in New York, where, at the start of the story, he lives a pleasant life with his wife, Anne, and their three children, Elizabeth, Margaret, and Alonzo.

Northup 12 years a slave