Every day brings a new story. And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books.
Today is the story of January 4th.
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It is the fourth day of the year, leaving 361 days remaining in 2022.
Northup told his story in his book, 12 Years a Slave, which sold thousands of copies, allowing Northup to buy land in New York. He gave speeches throughout the Northeast telling his tale on behalf of the abolitionist movement.
Although when and how he died remains a mystery, his story has lived on, and gained a second life in 2013 when director Steve McQueen turned his story into a movie, with actor Chiwetel Ejiofor in the lead role. The film won the Academy Award for best picture, and Ejiofor was nominated for best actor. The film also won the Golden Globe and BAFTA award for best picture, and Ejiofor won a BAFTA for best actor.
Northup's story is horrifying, even within the cruelty and dehumanization of slavery.
He was a freeman living and working in New York. His father, Mintus, was manumitted when his enslaver died, and eventually bought land in New York. Northup, born in 1808 or '09, married, had children, and his family moved to Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in 1834. He was a talented fiddler, and while seeking work, was drugged, kidnapped, and sold into slavery.
He was bought and sold several times, sent downriver to Louisiana, and beaten and whipped regularly. This was despite -- and sometimes because of -- his protests that he was a freeman and had papers to prove it.
Eventually, Northup convinced an abolitionist working in Louisiana who he was, and after several months, a court recognized who he was and returned his freedom.
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