12 YEARS A SLAVE: A TRUE STORY

Category Biographies & Memoirs
Format Paperback
Imprint Rupa
Price 195

ISBN: 978-93-5520-058-7
Pages: 264 pages
Date: 10th November 2021

ABOUT THIS BOOK

An extraordinary story of resilience and hope
A free man, who is a hard-working farmer, ends up in bondage serving under various masters. His struggle for survival and freedom consumes 12 years of his life. His only ‘folly’? He was a man of colour. 12 Years a Slave is one of the best slave narratives ever penned down, it was adapted into a movie by the same name in 2013 and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture (Drama).
The book was first published in 1853, three years after the Fugitive Slave Act. Solomon Northup’s narrative acted as an important cultural symbol of slave life on southern plantations in America before the Civil War.

AUTHOR OF THE BOOK

Solomon Northup (1808–57) was a free-born African-American from Saratoga Springs, New York. In 1841, he was kidnapped and forced into slavery for 12 years. With the help of his family and his father’s former master, Northup ultimately won his freedom and took the traders who betrayed him to court. He is best known for his autobiographical account of his enslavement, 12 Years a Slave.