PUBLICATION
Despite these subtle reminders of the racism that existed in America, Northup's book is not a diatribe against slavery. In the year it was published, 1853, a local newspaper observed that “Its tone is much milder than we expected to see exhibited … but, while he seems to fully realize the magnitude of his sufferings, he does not condemn all.” (2)
Surprisingly, Northup exhibited little bitterness over what had befallen him. For several years after the publication of Twelve Years a Slave, he traveled throughout the northeastern states, telling the public about his time as a slave. When he gave a lecture in Vermont in 1855, someone who had heard it said it “was wholly without vituperation, or even harshness …” (3)
In reports of his appearances, he was generally described as someone who spoke plainly and with directness. One newspaper writer noted “his unaffected simplicity, directness and gentlemanly bearing.” As was true of his book, Northup's straightforward and objective presentation was more impressive “than many fervid appeals to which we have listened.” (4) His approach in his book and his lectures was to stick to the facts, allowing others to reach their own conclusions about slavery.
Audiences were impressed with his storytelling talents. “Northup tells his story in plain and candid language, and intermingles it with flashes of genuine wit. It is a sure treat to hear him give some hazardous adventure, with so much sans [sic] froid, that the audience is completely enraptured and the ‘house brought down.’” (5) Those who listened to his lectures seemed to share the opinion of his neighbors who had provided affidavits in his favor: that he was trustworthy and intelligent.
During the period that Northup was lecturing – the mid-1850s – records show that he sometimes suffered financial difficulties. And the evidence is that he did not reside with his family full time. Given what he had gone through in the South, we can guess that it would have been difficult for him to simply slip back into family life. By about 1861, according to letters from the son of an anti-slavery pastor, Northup was working with the clergyman to help runaway slaves reach safety in Canada – the so-called “Underground Railroad.” The letters indicate that Northup was still alive at the time of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 – because at the time he reportedly visited the pastor in Vermont.
WHAT HAPPENED TO NORTHUP?
Beyond 1863, no traces of Northup have surfaced in newspapers or official records. A listing of inhabitants of New York State in 1875 includes his wife, along with other family members – but not Northup. According to the record, his wife is widowed, so Northup seemingly was deceased by that year. (Earlier census records had shown the wife to be a married woman.)
What Northup may have been doing during the Civil War remains a mystery. It's possible that his money problems continued, and he perhaps wandered about seeking work, dying penniless in some unfamiliar place. Perhaps he pursued a different vocation. He wrote very positively about agriculture; possibly he took up farming. His autobiography does not give the impression that he was the retiring sort. Despite his stated hope, once he had achieved his freedom, “henceforward to lead an upright though lowly life,” it is hard to imagine this man of action quietly sitting at home in some Northern state, merely reading about the war in newspapers. Might he have gone south, seeking out his luckless slave friend Patsey? Might he have in some way provided assistance to the Union army (which had a presence in central Louisiana as early as 1862)? As a scout – or a spy – Northup could have provided valuable information. He knew the landscape, and he also knew how to play the part of a slave, so could have gathered information without being noticed.
Perhaps a packet of letters or old newspaper clippings will be found in an attic somewhere, and the Northup story can have its proper ending. But his ultimate fate – how, when, and where he died – may never be learned.
ACCURACY AND AUTHORSHIP
Twelve Years a Slave is filled with so many details (in some cases, inconsequential ones) that is hard to believe claims could be made that the narrative was fabricated – and yet, the charge has occasionally been made. The effort that would have been required to gather all the information about individuals, locations, and methods described by Northup would have been immeasurable. It would have been easier to simply write the book as a novel.
Many details Northup included can be, and have been, verified through other sources. I could cite a number of facts that support Northup's account as being based on reality, but will merely provide one which I believe clinches the case.
Northup tells how, while he was aboard the slave-laden brig Orleans, it anchored near the city of Norfolk, Virginia. A boat set out from shore, and several more slaves were transferred to the Orleans. The ship continued its fateful trip to Louisiana, and Northup tells us that a slave, Robert, died along the way and was buried at sea. In those days, the United States government kept records showing what slaves ships were transporting between domestic ports. The so-called “slave manifest” for the Orleans is preserved in the National Archives. There are two pages: one lists the slaves who had departed Richmond, Virginia (including Northup, under the name Plat Hamilton); the second page gives the names of those taken aboard at Norfolk. The names on the manifest do not exactly match the ones Northup gives in his book – but a number do match. The second page (which at the top has Richmond crossed out, and Norfolk written in) includes the notation, added once the ship arrived at New Orleans: “Examin'd and found Correct with the exception of Robert Jones who Capt Wickham states died on the Passage.” It is inconceivable that, had some parties prepared a falsified book, they would have managed (or even bothered) to seek out an obscure government document that showed the Orleans took on extra slaves at Norfolk, and that Robert had passed away in the course of the voyage.
The question of authorship has also arisen over time. Did Northup pen the narrative, or was it David Wilson? Wilson has sometimes been called the book's “ghost writer,” yet he is clearly identified as the book's editor (even supplying his own preface). Wilson explains that the content of the book came from Northup, in response to questions from Wilson. We know that Wilson authored other books, and a comparison of the writing style in Twelve Years a Slave with those titles indicates much more dry and matter-of-fact language compared to the Northup book, which is highly descriptive. Though it's possible that the difference is due to the intervention of an editor at the publishing house, it is more likely that this is simply Northup's style. We know that, when he lectured, he was a dramatic storyteller who did not require Wilson's presence on stage to captivate an audience.
Another clear sign of Northup's voice in the book are the sometimes tortuously detailed detours from the main narrative. In Chapter XIV, for example, he devotes several paragraphs to how he designed and built a fish trap. Throughout the book, he goes into great detail in explaining agricultural practices in Louisiana. It is hard to imagine that anyone besides Northup would have demanded inclusion of such secondary topics.
Finally, there is the matter of Northup's motivation for putting his story to paper. He states this very clearly at the book's beginning: “I can speak of Slavery only so far as it came under my own observation – only so far as I have known and experienced it in my own person. My object is, to give a candid and truthful statement of facts: to repeat the story of my life, without exaggeration …” Although incidents portrayed by Northup are sometimes used as evidence of what slavery was like throughout the United States, it was not his intention to present a wide overview of slavery – whose practices differed greatly from one region to the next.
As the veracity of slave narratives