Twelve Years a Slave / Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, from a Cotton Plantation near the Red River in Louisiana

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FIFTH THOUSAND.

TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE.

NARRATIVE
OF
SOLOMON NORTHUP,
A CITIZEN OF NEW-YORK,
KIDNAPPED IN WASHINGTON CITY IN 1841,
AND
RESCUED IN 1853,

FROM A COTTON PLANTATION NEAR THE RED RIVER,
IN LOUISIANA.

AUBURN:
DERBY AND MILLER.

BUFFALO:
DERBY, ORTON AND MULLIGAN.

LONDON:
SAMPSON LOW, SON & COMPANY, 47 LUDGATE HILL.

1853.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and
fifty-three, by
Derby and Miller,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Northern District of New-York.

Entered in London at Stationers' Hall.

TO
HARRIET BEECHER STOWE:
WHOSE NAME,
THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, IS IDENTIFIED WITH THE
GREAT REFORM:
THIS NARRATIVE, AFFORDING ANOTHER
Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin,
IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED

"Such dupes are men to custom, and so prone

To reverence what is ancient, and can plead

A course of long observance for its use,

That even servitude, the worst of ills,

Because delivered down from sire to son,

Is kept and guarded as a sacred thing.

But is it fit, or can it bear the shock

Of rational discussion, that a man

Compounded and made up, like other men,

Of elements tumultuous, in whom lust

And folly in as ample measure meet,

As in the bosom of the slave he rules,

Should be a despot absolute, and boast

Himself the only freeman of his land?"

Cowper.

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