Solomon Northup: The Free Black Man Kidnapped Into Slavery

In this episode, The Unburied Record examines Solomon Northup's kidnapping, transport, enslavement, rescue and published testimony through Northup's own account, the Brig Orleans manifest and related historical records. Northup was a free Black man from New York. An 1841 ship manifest recorded him under an imposed name: Plat Hamilton. His 1853 narrative restored his own name to the record. Chapters: 00:00 Line 33 and the imposed name 00:38 This is The Unburied Record 00:49 The world before the event 01:47 Solomon Northup before kidnapping 02:56 Job offer, route and free papers 03:41 Confinement, missing papers and imposed identity 04:28 The wider kidnapping system 05:53 Transport, New Orleans and Ford 07:52 Ford to Tibeats 09:19 Epps and the labor system 11:30 Patsey: skill, power and danger 12:12 Celeste, mutual aid and concealed identity 13:18 Bass and the legal rescue chain 14:58 Return, reunion and publication 15:36 Sources and closing Sources: Primary sources: Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, Documenting the American South, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: https://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/northup/... National Archives, Slave Manifest of Solomon Northup, National Archives Identifier 7456569: https://www.archives.gov/fort-worth/h... Context sources: National Archives Education Updates, Twelve Years a Slave and the Brig Orleans manifest context: https://education.blogs.archives.gov/... Historic New Orleans Collection, Solomon Northup in Louisiana: https://hnoc.org/virtual-exhibitions/... National Park Service, Commemorate the Life of Solomon Northup: https://www.nps.gov/wori/learn/news/c... Library of Congress, Collection Connections: Twelve Years a Slave: https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2014/04/col... National Archives, Slavery and Emancipation in the Nation's Capital: https://www.archives.gov/publications... National Archives Education Updates, Kidnapping of Free People of Color: https://education.blogs.archives.gov/... Carol Wilson, Freedom at Risk: The Kidnapping of Free Blacks in America, 1780-1865: https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_africa... Smithsonian Associates, The Reverse Underground Railroad: Slavery and Kidnapping in Pre-Civil War America: https://smithsonianassociates.org/tic... Library of Congress, 1839 United States map by David H. Burr and John Arrowsmith: https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3700.rr... Library of Congress, The American Traveller; or, Guide Through the United States: https://www.loc.gov/item/18000843/ Library of Congress, View of Washington City and Georgetown: https://www.loc.gov/resource/pga.03021/ NOAA vessel-rig reference used for general brig morphology: https://repository.library.noaa.gov/v... Production note: Some scenes are AI-assisted historical illustrations created to clarify documented events. They are not archival footage. Archival records, maps and source material are identified where used.