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Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, from a Cotton Plantation near the Red River in LouisianaNorthup, Solomon

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Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, from a Cotton Plantation near the Red River in Louisiana

Name: Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, from a Cotton Plantation near the Red River in Louisiana
Author: Northup, Solomon

Northup, Solomon

African Americans -- Biography; Enslaved persons -- United States -- Biography; Enslaved persons' writings, American; Northup, Solomon, 1808-1863?; Plantation life -- Louisiana -- History -- 19th century; Slavery -- Louisiana -- History -- 19th century

Personal Appearance of Epps--Epps, Drunk and Sober--A Glimpse
  of his History--Cotton Growing--The Mode of Ploughing and
  Preparing Ground--Of Planting, of Hoeing, of Picking, of
  Treating Raw Hands--The difference in Cotton Pickers--Patsey
  a remarkable one--Tasked according to Ability--Beauty of a
  Cotton Field--The Slave's Labors--Fear of Approaching the
  Gin-House--Weighing--"Chores"--Cabin Life--The Corn Mill--The Uses
  of the Gourd--Fear of Oversleeping--Fear continually--Mode of
  Cultivating Corn--Sweet Potatoes--Fertility of the Soil--Fattening
  Hogs--Preserving Bacon--Raising Cattle--Shooting-Matches--Garden
  Products--Flowers and Verdure,                                    162


  CHAPTER XIII.

  The Curious Axe-Helve--Symptoms of approaching Illness--Continue
  to decline--The Whip ineffectual--Confined to the Cabin--Visit by
  Dr. Wines--Partial Recovery--Failure at Cotton Picking--What may
  be heard on Epps' Plantation--Lashes Graduated--Epps in a Whipping
  Mood--Epps in a Dancing Mood--Description of the Dance--Loss of
  Rest no Excuse--Epps' Characteristics--Jim Burns--Removal from
  Huff Power to Bayou Boeuf--Description of Uncle Abram; of Wiley;
  of Aunt Phebe; of Bob, Henry, and Edward; of Patsey; with a
  Genealogical Account of each--Something of their Past History, and
  Peculiar Characteristics-- Jealousy and Lust--Patsey, the Victim,
                                                                    176


  CHAPTER XIV.

  Destruction of the Cotton Crop in 1845--Demand for Laborers
  in St. Mary's Parish--Sent thither in a Drove--The Order
  of the March--The Grand Coteau--Hired to Judge Turner on
  Bayou Salle--Appointed Driver in his Sugar House--Sunday
  Services--Slave Furniture; how obtained--The Party at Yarney's,
  in Centreville--Good Fortune--The Captain of the Steamer--His
  Refusal to Secrete me--Return to Bayou Boeuf--Sight of
  Tibeats--Patsey's Sorrows--Tumult and Contention--Hunting the
  Coon and Opossum--The Cunning of the latter--The Lean Condition
  of the Slave--Description of the Fish Trap--The Murder of the
  Man from Natchez--Epps Challenged by Marshall--The Influence of
  Slavery--The Love of Freedom,                                     191


  CHAPTER XV.

  Labors on Sugar Plantations--The Mode of Planting Cane--of
  Hoeing Cane--Cane Ricks--Cutting Cane--Description of the Cane
  Knife--Winrowing--Preparing for Succeeding Crops--Description of
  Hawkins' Sugar Mill on Bayou Boeuf--The Christmas Holidays--The
  Carnival Season of the Children of Bondage--The Christmas
  Supper--Red, the Favorite Color--The Violin, and the Consolation
  it afforded--The Christmas Dance--Lively, the Coquette--Sam
  Roberts, and his Rivals--Slave Songs--Southern Life as it
  is--Three Days in the Year--The System of Marriage--Uncle Abram's
  Contempt of Matrimony,                                            208


  CHAPTER XVI.

Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, from a Cotton Plantation near the Red River in Louisiana

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