12 years a slave summary 500 words

Summary of Twelve Years a Slave

    Solomon Northup was born a freeman. On Christmas day, 1829, Northup married Anne Hampton. He was about twenty one years old and decided to enter upon a life of industry so that he could help support him and his wife. He first was employed with others repairing the Champlain Canal. By the time the Canal was finished Northup purchased a pair of horses and other things necessarily required in the business of navigation. He hired several men to help him and he began to transport large rafts of timber from Lake Champlain to Troy. Being involved with this type of work for awhile Northup became very good with the arts and mysteries of rafting. After he finished with that contract he entered into another…show more content…

They offered to pay him for his play and also for the expenses of his travel (to New York with the circus) Northup agreed to do it and he did not think he would be gone for a very long time so he did not bother to tell his wife. Before they left on their journey the men recommended Northup to get papers that stated he was a free man. He got the papers signed and they left for their circus trip. One afternoon the men stopped several times at saloons and drank liquor. They gave some to Northup too but he never drank enough to become intoxicated. After Northup drank several glasses he began to feel really sick and his head hurt with a great amount of pain. Brown and Hamilton suggested he went to bed. When he was in bed he could not sleep because of the pain and because he was terribly thirsty. After about an hour of lying in bed unknown people came into his room and told him that he had to go to a doctor for medicine, the unknown people dragged him out of his room and into the open street. The next thing Northup remembers is waking up on a bench in a basement with his hands-cuffed and his ankles tied up. He was half naked and stripped of his belongings and his freedom.

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