Skip to content
The Historic New Orleans Collection
Visit
Calendar
A historical illustration depicting an auction scene with an auctioneer holding a gavel and several men in 19th-century clothing. A Black man and a Black woman stand on the auction block. Various fabrics are visible in the foreground.
Slave Auction; ca. 1831; ink and watercolor. The Historic New Orleans Collection, 1941.3

Solomon Northup in Louisiana

Purchased Lives
Born in Slavery
A Great Forced Migration
To Be Sold
Resisting the Trade
Solomon Northup in Louisiana
New Orleans, Slave Market of the South
Supporting the Trade
In Search of Freedom and Family

In 1841 Solomon Northup, a free black New Yorker, was kidnapped in Washington, DC, and sold to slave trader James Birch. Renaming Northup "Platt Hamilton," Birch created a fictitious backstory for Platt before shipping him south via the brig Orleans to his partner Theophilus Freeman in New Orleans. The ship left Richmond on April 27, 1841, and arrived in New Orleans three weeks later, on May 24, carrying a cargo of forty-one men, women, and children, including Northup, who is listed as "Plat Hamilton" on line 33 of the ship manifest below. His shipmate Eliza, listed as "Drady Cooper," and her children are the final entries on that manifest. After being sold from Freeman's slave pen to planter William Ford, Northup spent twelve years illegally enslaved on central Louisiana sugar and cotton plantations. Ford also purchased Eliza, but her children were sold to other buyers.

Northup's autobiography, Twelve Years a Slave, was published in 1853, just one year after Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, and sold more than thirty thousand copies in three years. With details such as Eliza's sale substantiated by the historical record, the narrative provides an exceptional window on the world of the slave trade and illuminates the efforts of one man to navigate his way back to freedom. 

An illustration of a man seated on a bench, holding a hat with a barrel beside him, is on the left page. The right page is faded, with the title Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup visible.
Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup; London: Miller, Orton, and Mulligan, 1854 (first British edition). HNOC, 72-87-L.8
A handwritten page from a 19th-century ledger dated January 1853, with entries detailing financial transactions, debts, and credits. The ink is slightly faded, and the page shows signs of age with faint lines and a handwritten script.
Journal of John Pamplin Waddill, Louisiana lawyer hired to free Solomon Northup; January 1 and 4, 1853. Courtesy of Liz Brazelton
An old legal document from Louisiana. The text is slightly faded, handwritten in elegant script. There are signatures, marginal notes, and a small attached note on the left. The paper appears aged with a worn appearance.
Notarized act of sale of Harry, aged about twenty; Platt [Solomon Northup], aged about twenty-three; and Dradey [Eliza], aged about twenty, by Theophilus Freeman of New Orleans to William Prince Ford of Rapides Parish; June 23, 1841. Courtesy of the Notarial Archives Division, Dale N. Atkins, Clerk of Civil District Court, Parish of Orleans 
Historic document titled Brig Orleans listing 57 enslaved people for transport from Richmond, Virginia, to New Orleans, Louisiana, dated April 1841. Includes names, ages, descriptions, and remarks for each individual.
Manifest of forty-one slaves shipped on the brig Orleans from Richmond to New Orleans; April 27, 1841. Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration, Forth Worth, Texas
A historical advertisement titled Cash for 400 Negroes, offering to purchase enslaved people aged 12 to 25. It mentions Mechanics Hall in Washington City and offers higher prices than other buyers. Dated February 29; signed by James H. Birch.
Advertisement offering "Cash for 400 Negroes" placed by James J. Birch, Washington City from the Daily National Intelligencer (Washington City, DC); June 11, 1836. HNOC, 79-95-L.13
Chapter 6: New Orleans, Slave Market of the South