Classic of the Month: Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup

In honor of Black History Month, Cosimo is proud to offer Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup as its Classic of the Month.

This riveting and harrowing memoir, originally published in 1853, was a best-seller and groundbreaking work during its time. In 1841, free-born African American Solomon Northup was offered a job within his hometown of Saratoga Springs, only to find that it was a trap---leading to him being beaten, drugged, kidnapped, and sold into slavery by his employers. He eventually ended up on a Louisiana plantation owned by Edwin Epps, where he became friends with Canadian carpenter Edward Bass, who was doing work for the plantation owner at the time. Bass secretly contacted Northup's family, who informed New York governor Washington Hunt of his kidnapping. The state was able to use a law passed in 1840, to rescue Northup, that allowed the recovery of free black men who were sold into slavery. Solomon was finally made free again on January 4, 1853.

In 2013 Twelve Years a Slave, a movie based on an adaptation of this autobiography was produced and directed by Steve McQueen: it ended up winning three 2014 Oscars for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay,and Best Supporting Actress.

This incredible journey is a must-read for all, but may be of particular interest to historians, librarians, or anyone interested in African American History.

About the Author:
SOLOMON NORTHUP (1808-c. 1875) was a free African American from New York who was deceived, drugged, and sold into slavery in Washington, D.C. in 1841. He was transported to New Orleans and sold to a plantation owner in Louisiana. For several years, he was passed around between slave owners before winding up with plantation owner Edwin Epps. There he met Canadian carpenter Samuel Bass, who helped him regain his freedom in 1853. Solomon spent the rest of his life as an abolitionist. He also assisted with the Underground Railroad in the early 1860s.

Cosimo is thrilled to offer Twelve Years a Slave in hardcover, paperback, and eBook formats at leading online bookstores including Barnes & Noble (paperback, hardcover, and Nook) and Amazon (paperback, hardcover, and Kindle).

Classic of the Month:Twelve Years a Slave

In honor of Black History Month, we are featuring an unique and influential work about slavery that has recently achieved renewed recognition because of the release of  major feature movie of the same name:Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup.

In 1841, free-born African American Solomon Northup was offered a job in his hometown of Saratoga Springs, New York. He followed his employers to the job site at Washington, D.C., where he was beaten, drugged, kidnapped, and sold into slavery, eventually ending up on a plantation in Louisiana owned by Edwin Epps. While there, in 1852, Northup befriended Canadian carpenter Samuel Bass, who was at the time doing work for Epps. Secretly, Bass was able to contact Northup's family, who informed New York governor Washington Hunt of his kidnapping. The state was able to use a law passed in 1840 that allowed the recovery of free black men who were sold into slavery to rescue Northup. Solomon was finally made free again on January 4, 1853. One of few slaves of his era ever to regain freedom, he devoted his time and energy to lecturing and educating others about abolitionism. Northup is without a doubt, a person worth celebrating.


Twelve Years a Slave was a bestseller in its time and remains one today. Northrup's work sold approximately 30,000 copies copies when it was first released, and has made the Top Ten of the New York Times Non-Fiction Bestseller list for 2013. A recent film adaptation by Steve McQueen, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, and Brad Pitt, has also earned the story the Golden Globe for Best Drama and nine Academy Award nominations including best picture, best actor in a leading and supporting role, best actress in a supporting role, and best director.

Cosimo is proud to have released both an affordable paperback and beautiful hardcover edition of Twelve Years a Slave at Barnes & Noble, as well as on Amazon (paperback and hardcover).

Twelve Years a Slave Takes Top Golden Globe Award and Receives Nine Oscar Award Nominations

The quite amazing story about how an old, nearly forgotten book becomes a star-casted movie with Oscar potential continues to unfold when Twelve Years a Slave took the Golden Globe for Best Drama, organized by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. 

In the meanwhile, this movie has also received nine Academy Award nominations including best picture, best actor in a leading and supporting role, best actress in a supporting role, and best director. The Oscars will be presented on March 2, 2014.

Read this insightful interview in The Sydney Morning Herald with director Steve McQueen, who moved from Ghana to England, now lives in Amsterdam and was once called by his school teachers not to amount to anything and is now a Oscar contender. McQueen says this in his interview:

"It's no different," McQueen says. "Making a film is like writing a novel – you're telling a story – whereas art is more like poetry: fractured and compressed. It's a bigger process and of course, with film, more people are involved and it may take 10 months to make rather than the moment it takes to make a brushstroke. But when I think about it, it feels the same."


The interview continues:

' Of course the recognition is thrilling; McQueen said he was "exhilarated and ecstatic" about those nine Oscar nominations. But big films – and 12 Years a Slave, for all that it cost barely £10 million ($19 million) and was shot with one camera in 35 days, is a big film – also get picked apart in a big way. For a start, there is the film's brutality. The unwavering stare of McQueen's long takes levelled upon beatings and lynchings has proved too much for some audiences. But how could a film about slavery be anything but painfully violent?

McQueen says he simply followed Northup's book. "Reading it was like revelation after revelation," he says. "Everything is from the memoir; nothing is taken for granted and every behaviour is documented."

That's another objection: that 12 Years a Slave catalogues and condemns the sins of a past era, rather than addressing the muddier and more conflicted sins of the present. McQueen dismisses this with his customary abruptness. "The point is that it is happening now," he says. "I listened to a lady in Kenya who had been in the same circumstances: seduced by a work offer in Dubai, she went there, had her passport taken, was subjected to this terrible ordeal, locked up at night; she escaped in Los Angeles. The past is absolutely about the present for me."

Cosimo is proud to have released the original edition both in a jacketed hard cover and an affordable paperback both with a beautiful cover illustration from the original book. However many Oscars this movie may receive, it doesn't happen often that movie and book are both worth the experience. I wholeheartedly recommend watching the movie and reading the book.

The Cosimo editions are available from many leading online stores, such as Barnes & Noble in hardcover and paperback.

And Amazon - also in hardcover and paperback -:

Twelve Years a Slave Now Available

"Having been born a freeman, and for more than thirty years enjoyed the blessings of liberty in a free State--and having at the end of that time been kidnapped and sold into Slavery, where I remained, until happily rescued in the month of January, 1853, after a bondage of twelve years--it has been suggested that an account of my life and fortunes would not be uninteresting to the public."

We're pleased to announce that we now offer Solomon Northup's powerful, heartbreaking biographical tale Twelve Years a Slave in both paperback and hardcover, reproduced from its original edition.

This work, originally published in 1853, details Northup's experiences as a free Black man sold into slavery. This harrowing narrative provided factual validation for Harriet Beecher Stowe's fictional Uncle Tom's Cabin. Stowe's work was often maligned and ridiculed by plantation owners who refused to acknowledge the true treatment of slaves in the United States, but Northrup's detailed account of his treatment solidified the facts of the situation, particularly because his enslavement was geographically near the setting of Stowe's work.

Twelve Years a Slave was a bestseller in its time and remains one today. Northrup's work sold approximately 30,000 copies copies when it was first released, and has made the Top Ten of the New York Times Non-Fiction Bestseller list for 2013. Renewed interest in this work stems, in part, to a recent film adaptation by Steve McQueen, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, and Brad Pitt. It is considered a contender for major honors during the upcoming awards season and has sparked continued debate about the history of this nation and how we represent its events onscreen.

Twelve Years a Slave is available in hardcover and paperback at Amazon and Barnes & Noble online. This must-read is available in a beautiful replica hardcover edition for just $19.79 at Amazon.