He published an account of his experiences in Twelve Years a Slave (1853) in his first year of freedom. Returning to his family in New York, Northup became active in abolitionism. District of Columbia law prohibited him as a black man from testifying against whites and, without his testimony, the men went free. Northup sued the slave traders in Washington, DC, but lost in the local court. New York state had passed a law in 1840 to recover African-American residents who had been kidnapped and sold into slavery. Held in the Red River region of Louisiana by several different owners, he got news to his family, who contacted friends and enlisted the New York governor in his cause. After 12 years in bondage, he regained his freedom in January 1853 he was one of very few to do so in such cases. From Washington, DC, he was transported to New Orleans where he was sold to a plantation owner from Rapides Parish, Louisiana. When he accompanied his supposed employers to Washington, DC, they drugged him and sold him into slavery. He is noted for having been kidnapped in 1841 when enticed with a job offer. Solomon Northup was a free-born African American from Saratoga Springs, New York.
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