Solomon Northup and Slavery

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Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Such people can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation. These people are known as slaves. A victim of this act is Solomon Northup, a free-born African American from New York. This essay is based on the early life, marriage, family and work of Solomon Northup, including the excruciating story of his kidnap into slavery.
Solomon Northup was born in July 1808 in Minerva, New York. His father, Mintus Northup, was originally enslaved to Henry Northup’s family from Rhode Island, but he was later freed upon his master's death and adopted the surname Northup as his own, after the family moved to New York. Mintus Northup married and moved with his wife, a free woman of color, to the town of Minerva in Essex County, New York. Not much is known about his mother who in his narrative does not identify by name. Mintus became a widower sometime afterwards. Their two sons, Solomon and Joseph, were born free according to the principle of partus sequitur ventrem, as both mother and father were free people. Mintus' wife was of mixed ancestry, and was considered a quadroon since she was one-forth black. Mintus was a successful farmer who met the property requirements necessary for voting. The level of education he provided for his two sons was considered high for freed blacks at the time. Solomon played the violin well but later managed his own farm in Hebron (Washington County.) His father's last dwelling was on the road leading from Fort Edward (from War of 1763) to Argyle. He died in November 1829, and his grave is loca...

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...s of whipping were heard every day on Epps' plantation, from sunset until bedtime. Epps sexually abused a young enslaved woman, Patsey, by constantly raping her. This led to additional severe physical and mental abuse stimulated by Epp's wife.
In 1852, Samuel Bass, who was a carpenter came to do some work for Epps. Bass expressed his opponent views this made Northup eventually decided to reveal his secrets to him. Bass was the first person he told of his true name and origins as a free man since he was first enslaved. Along with mailing a letter written by Northup, Bass also wrote several letters at his appeal to Northup's friends, providing common details of his location at Bayou Boeuf, in hopes of gaining his rescue. Bass helped Northup after opening of the Fleeting Slave Law of 1850, which increased national punishments against people assisting slaves to escape.

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