12 years a slave - The Actual People of the True Story. Released during the 160th anniversary of the freeing of Solomon Northup in Marksvillle, Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana. First published in 1853, this gripping first hand account of how it felt to be a slave in the deep south captures the suffering and ultimate triumph of a New York free black man who was kidnapped into slavery in Louisiana. For the first time ever published, see the real faces of some of the actual people and places who Solomon Northup writes about. These are not actors, these are the portraits of the men and women who...

This book is the culmination of over forty years of collecting old photographs by the author in Avoyelles Parish. The faces of about 150 of these soldiers or Civil War participants from Avoyelles are the largest collection of its type. The rarest of the photographs depict local soldiers in uniform, some bearing arms. There are also portraits of two Avoyelles men who were among the hundreds of local young men who died in the war. Over 1000 men from Avoyelles Parish served during the Civil War. Bordered by two rivers, the rich soil of the Mississippi and Red River valleys enabled large and many...