Twelve Years a Slave
of the 21st. My heart overflowed with happiness as I looked around
upon old familiar scenes, and found myself in the midst of friends of
other days. The following morning I started, in company with several
acquaintances, for Glens Falls, the residence of Anne and our children.
As I entered their comfortable cottage, Margaret was the first that
met me. She did not recognize me. When I left her, she was but seven
years old, a little prattling girl, playing with her toys. Now she was
grown to womanhood--was married, with a bright-eyed boy standing by
her side. Not forgetful of his enslaved, unfortunate grand-father,
she had named the child Solomon Northup Staunton. When told who I
was, she was overcome with emotion, and unable to speak. Presently
Elizabeth entered the room, and Anne came running from the hotel,
having been informed of my arrival. They embraced me, and with tears
flowing down their cheeks, hung upon my neck. But I draw a veil over a
scene which can better be imagined than described.
When the violence of our emotions had subsided to a sacred joy--when
the household gathered round the fire, that sent out its warm and
crackling comfort through the room, we conversed of the thousand
events that had occurred--the hopes and fears, the joys and sorrows,
the trials and troubles we had each experienced during the long
separation. Alonzo was absent in the western part of the State. The
boy had written to his mother a short time previous, of the prospect
of his obtaining sufficient money to purchase my freedom. From his
earliest years, that had been the chief object of his thoughts and his
ambition. They knew I was in bondage. The letter written on board the
brig, and Clem Ray himself, had given them that information. But where
I was, until the arrival of Bass' letter, was a matter of conjecture.
Elizabeth and Margaret once returned from school--so Anne informed
me--weeping bitterly. On inquiring the cause of the children's sorrow,
it was found that, while studying geography, their attention had been
attracted to the picture of slaves working in the cotton-field,
and an overseer following them with his whip. It reminded them of
the sufferings their father might be, and, as it happened, actually
_was_, enduring in the South. Numerous incidents, such as these, were
related--incidents showing they still held me in constant remembrance,
but not, perhaps, of sufficient interest to the reader, to be
recounted.
* * * * *
My narrative is at an end. I have no comments to make upon the subject
of Slavery. Those who read this book may form their own opinions of
the "peculiar institution." What it may be in other States, I do not
profess to know; what it is in the region of Red River, is truly
and faithfully delineated in these pages. This is no fiction, no
exaggeration. If I have failed in anything, it has been in presenting
to the reader too prominently the bright side of the picture. I doubt
not hundreds have been as unfortunate as myself; that hundreds of free
citizens have been kidnapped and sold into slavery, and are at this
moment wearing out their lives on plantations in Texas and Louisiana.
But I forbear. Chastened and subdued in spirit by the sufferings I
have borne, and thankful to that good Being through whose mercy I have
been restored to happiness and liberty, I hope henceforward to lead an
upright though lowly life, and rest at last in the church yard where
my father sleeps.
ROARING RIVER.
A REFRAIN OF THE RED RIVER PLANTATION.
"Harper's creek and roarin' ribber,
Thar, my dear, we'll live forebber;
Den we'll go to de Ingin nation,
All I want in dis creation,
Is pretty little wife and big plantation.
CHORUS.
Up dat oak and down dat ribber,
Two overseers and one little nigger."
APPENDIX.
A.--Page 291.
CHAP. 375.
_An act more effectually to protect the free citizens of this
State from being kidnapped, or reduced to Slavery._
[Passed May 14, 1840.]
The People of the State of New-York, represented in Senate and
Assembly, do enact as follows:
§ 1. Whenever the Governor of this State shall receive information
satisfactory to him that any free citizen or any inhabitant of this
State has been kidnapped or transported away out of this State, into
any other State or Territory of the United States, for the purpose of
being there held in slavery; or that such free citizen or inhabitant
is wrongfully seized, imprisoned or held in slavery in any of the
States or Territories of the United States, on the allegation or
pretence that such a person is a slave, or by color of any usage
or rule of law prevailing in such State or Territory, is deemed or
taken to be a slave, or not entitled of right to the personal liberty
belonging to a citizen; it shall be the duty of the said Governor to
take such measures as he shall deem necessary to procure such person
to be restored to his liberty and returned to this State. The Governor
is hereby authorized to appoint and employ such agent or agents as
he shall deem necessary to effect the restoration and return of
such person; and shall furnish the said agent with such credentials
and instructions as will be likely to accomplish the object of his
appointment. The Governor may determine the compensation to be allowed
to such agent for his services besides his necessary expenses.
§ 2. Such agent shall proceed to collect the proper proof to establish
the right of such person to his freedom, and shall perform such
journeys, take such measures, institute and procure to be prosecuted
such legal proceedings, under the direction of the Governor, as shall
be necessary to procure such person to be restored to his liberty and
returned to this State.
§ 3. The accounts for all services and expenses incurred in carrying
this act into effect shall be audited by the Comptroller, and paid by
the Treasurer on his warrant, out of any moneys in the treasury of
this State not otherwise appropriated. The Treasurer may advance, on
the warrant of the Comptroller, to such agent, such sum or sums as
the Governor shall certify to be reasonable advances to enable him to
accomplish the purposes of his appointment, for which advance such
agent shall account, on the final audit of his warrant.
§ 4. This act shall take effect immediately.
B.--Page 292.
MEMORIAL OF ANNE.
_To His Excellency, the Governor of the State of New-York:_
The memorial of Anne Northup, of the village of Glens Falls, in the
county of Warren, State aforesaid, respectfully sets forth--
That your memorialist, whose maiden name was Anne Hampton, was
forty-four years old on the 14th day of March last, and was married
to Solomon Northup, then of Fort Edward, in the county of Washington
and State aforesaid, on the 25th day of December, A. D. 1828, by
Timothy Eddy, then a Justice of the Peace. That the said Solomon,
after such marriage, lived and kept house with your memorialist in
said town until 1830, when he removed with his said family to the town
of Kingsbury in said county, and remained there about three years, and
then removed to Saratoga Springs in the State aforesaid, and continued
to reside in said Saratoga Springs and the adjoining town until about
the year 1841, as near as the time can be recollected, when the said
Solomon started to go to the city of Washington, in the District of
Columbia, since which time your memorialist has never seen her said
husband.
And your memorialist further states, that in the year 1841 she
received information by a letter directed to Henry B. Northup, Esq.,
of Sandy Hill, Washington county, New-York, and post-marked at
New-Orleans, that said Solomon had been kidnapped in Washington, put
on board of a vessel, and was then in such vessel in New-Orleans, but
could not tell how he came in that situation, nor what his destination
was.
That your memorialist ever since the last mentioned period has been
wholly unable to obtain any information of where the said Solomon was,
until the month of September last, when another letter was received
from the said Solomon, post-marked at Marksville, in the parish of
Avoyelles, in the State of Louisiana, stating that he was held there
as a slave, which statement your memorialist believes to be true.
That the said Solomon is about forty-five years of age, and never
resided out of the State of New-York, in which State he was born,
until the time he went to Washington city, as before stated. That
the said Solomon Northup is a free citizen of the State of New-York,
and is now wrongfully held in slavery, in or near Marksville, in the
parish of Avoyelles, in the State of Louisiana, one of the United
States of America, on the allegation or pretence that the said Solomon
is a slave.
And your memorialist further states that Mintus Northup was the
reputed father of said Solomon, and was a negro, and died at Fort
Edward, on the 22d day of November, 1829; that the mother of said
Solomon was a mulatto, or three quarters white, and died in the county
of Oswego, New-York, some five or six years ago, as your memorialist
was informed and believes, and never was a slave.
That your memorialist and her family are poor and wholly unable to pay
or sustain any portion of the expenses of restoring the said Solomon
to his freedom.
Your excellency is entreated to employ such agent or agents as shall
be deemed necessary to effect the restoration and return of said
Solomon Northup, in pursuance of an act of the Legislature of the
State of New-York, passed May 14th, 1840, entitled "An act more
effectually to protect the free citizens of this State from being
kidnappd or reduced to slavery." And your memorialist will ever pray.
(Signed,) ANNE NORTHUP.
Dated November 19, 1852.
* * * * *
STATE OF NEW-YORK:
Washington county, ss.
Anne Northup, of the village of Glens Falls, in the county of Warren,
in said State, being duly sworn, doth depose and say that she signed
the above memorial, and that the statements therein contained are true.
(Signed,) ANNE NORTHUP.
Subscribed and sworn before me this
19th November, 1852.
CHARLES HUGHES, Justice Peace.
* * * * *
We recommend that the Governor appoint Henry B. Northup, of the
village of Sandy Hill, Washington county, New-York, as one of the
agents to procure the restoration and return of Solomon Northup, named
in the foregoing memorial of Anne Northup.
Dated at Sandy Hill, Washington Co., N. Y.,
November 20, 1852. (Signed.)
PETER HOLBROOK, DANIEL SWEET,
B. F. HOAG, ALMON CLARK,
CHARLES HUGHES, BENJAMIN FERRIS,
E. D. BAKER, JOSIAH H. BROWN,
ORVILLE CLARK.
* * * * *
STATE OF NEW-YORK:
Washington County, ss:
Josiah Hand, of the village of Sandy Hill, in said county, being
duly sworn, says, he is fifty-seven years old, and was born in said
village, and has always resided there; that he has known Mintus
Northup and his son Solomon, named in the annexed memorial of Anne
Northup, since previous to the year 1816; that Mintus Northup then,
and until the time of his death, cultivated a farm in the towns of
Kingsbury and Fort Edward, from the time deponent first knew him until
he died; that said Mintus and his wife, the mother of said Solomon
Northup, were reported to be free citizens of New-York, and deponent
believes they were so free; that said Solomon Northup was born in