The subject of the 2013 Academy Award winning Best Picture is the kidnapping of Solomon Northup (also spelled Northrup and Northrop by some family members). Northup had been born a “free man of color” in upstate New York. He was a well educated, talented violinist who was abducted in 1841, transported to Louisiana and sold into slavery. The film is based on his 1853 autobiographical book titled Twelve Years A Slave. In January 1853 friends in Saratoga, New York received intelligence regarding Solomon’s whereabouts and, with the help of New York Governor Washington Hunt, arranged for his freedom. The story of his ordeal and survival fascinated readers at the time as well as preserving a firsthand account of the slaveholder practices in that era of America’s history. Continue reading “Zip Northrup in Fair Haven”