Years later, as a graduate student at Louisiana State University, she chose the book as the topic for her thesis. Sue Eakin, who interpreted the story for a younger audience, saw her first copy of Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave: 1841-1853 when she was just twelve years old. This story of perseverance presents to children a personal side of the often-detached history of slavery.

As a slave, Northup was permitted neither pen nor paper, yet he was able to recall his ordeal in exacting detail.Ĭonsidered one of the best firsthand accounts of the slavery experience, this autobiographical story, originally published in 1853, has been painstakingly rewritten for children aged eight through twelve. His remarkable account of the epic journey from free man of color to slave to free man again is even more astonishing because it was written entirely from memory. Solomon Northup, a family man and hack driver in upstate New York, was kidnapped, whisked away from his home, and sold into slavery. For 12 years, violinist Solomon Northup toiled as a slave in Louisiana in secret, after being. “Solomon Northup’s trials and tribulations are retold in such a way that young-adult readers will be totally captivated by his story.” This is part of a new series called Vintage Headlines, an examination of notable news from years past. Northup collaborated with a white ghostwriter, David Wilson. In this lesson, students are asked to identify and analyze narrative passages that provide evidence for how slavery undermined and perverted these social institutions. Hicks, former Arkansas state supervisor of education The corrupting influence of slavery on marriage and the family is a predominant theme in Solomon Northup’s narrative Twelve Years a Slave. “The retelling of Solomon Northup’s true story is a valuable contribution to black history.

12 years a slave by solomon northup