Now the major motion picture that won the 2014 Academy Award for Best Picture, starringChiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, andLupita Nyong o, and directed by Steve McQueen

Perhaps the best written of all the slave narratives, Twelve Years a Slaveis a harrowing memoir about one of the darkest periods in American history. It recounts how Solomon Northup, born a free man in New York, was lured to Washington, D.C., in 1841 with the promise of fast money, then drugged and beaten and sold into slavery. He spent the next twelve years of his life in captivity on a Louisiana...

Born a free man in New York State in 1808, Solomon Northup was kidnapped in Washington, D.C., in 1841. He spent the next 12 years as a slave on a Louisiana cotton plantation, during this time he was frequently abused and often afraid for his life.

El mejor testimonio sobre la epoca mas sombria de la historia estadounidense son las desgarradoras memorias de Solomon Northup, un afroamericano nacido como hombre libre en Nueva York. Las escribio despues de haber pasado doce anos esclavizado en varias plantaciones de Luisiana. Corria el ano 1841 cuando fue enganado, secuestrado y vendido. Desaparecio sin dejar rastro. Su relato es sobrecogedor y su punto de vista, inusual, pues Northup conocio de primera mano que significaba ser un hombre libre y ser victima de la esclavitud. Su valioso libro ha subsistido por ser una cronica sobre el mal y...

It was Solomon's fortune, during his captivity, to be owned by several masters. The treatment he received while at the "Pine Woods" shows that among slaveholders there are men of humanity as well as of cruelty. Some of them are spoken of with emotions of gratitudeaothers in a spirit of bitterness. It is believed that the following account of his experience on Bayou BAuf presents a correct picture of Slavery, in all its lights and shadows, as it now exists in that locality. Unbiased, as he conceives, by any prepossessions or prejudices, the only object of the editor has been to give a faithful...