Twelve Years a Slave

LibriVox recording of Twelve Years a Slave, by Solomon Northup. Read by Rob Marland. Twelve Years a Slave is the memoir of a freeborn African American from New York who is kidnapped and sold into slavery. After being held for twelve years on a series of Louisiana plantations, he is eventually freed and reunited with his family. Solomon Northup published his memoir the year he was rescued, 1853, and, arriving soon after Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin", it proved a bestseller. It is notable not only for its lucid description of plantation life, with detailed passages on the methods by which cotton and sugarcane were harvested and processed, and how slaves were fed, housed and punished, but also for the author's evenhanded treatment of his subject: although he denounces slavery as an institution, Northup expresses his gratitude to the masters who treated him with gentleness and generosity, and shows a surprising ability to forgive even the most unimaginable cruelties.(Summary by Rob Marland) For further information, including links to online text, reader information, RSS feeds, CD cover or other formats (if available), please go to the LibriVox catalog page for this recording. For more free audio books or to become a volunteer reader, visit LibriVox.org . M4B audio book (224mb)