In this episode, The Unburied Record examines Solomon Northup’s kidnapping, transport, enslavement, rescue and published testimony through Northup’s own account, the Brig Orleans manifest and related historical records.
Northup was a free Black man from New York. An 1841 ship manifest recorded him under an imposed name: Plat Hamilton. His 1853 narrative restored his own name to the record.
Chapters:
00:00 Line 33 and the imposed name
00:38 This is The Unburied Record
00:49 The world before the event
01:47 Solomon Northup before kidnapping
02:56 Job offer, route and free papers
03:41 Confinement, missing papers and imposed identity
04:28 The wider kidnapping system
05:53 Transport, New Orleans and Ford
07:52 Ford to Tibeats
09:19 Epps and the labor system
11:30 Patsey: skill, power and danger
12:12 Celeste, mutual aid and concealed identity
13:18 Bass and the legal rescue chain
14:58 Return, reunion and publication
15:36 Sources and closing
Sources:
Primary sources:
– Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, Documenting the American South, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: https://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/northup/northup.html
– National Archives, Slave Manifest of Solomon Northup, National Archives Identifier 7456569: https://www.archives.gov/fort-worth/highlights/solomon-northup
Context sources:
– National Archives Education Updates, Twelve Years a Slave and the Brig Orleans manifest context: https://education.blogs.archives.gov/2013/11/05/twelve-years-a-slave/
– Historic New Orleans Collection, Solomon Northup in Louisiana: https://hnoc.org/virtual-exhibitions/purchased-lives/solomon-northup-louisiana
– National Park Service, Commemorate the Life of Solomon Northup: https://www.nps.gov/wori/learn/news/commemorate-the-life-of-solomon-northup.htm
– Library of Congress, Collection Connections: Twelve Years a Slave: https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2014/04/collection-connections-twelve-years-a-slave/
– National Archives, Slavery and Emancipation in the Nation’s Capital: https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2010/spring/dcslavery.html
– National Archives Education Updates, Kidnapping of Free People of Color: https://education.blogs.archives.gov/2013/11/12/kidnapping-of-free-people-of-color/
– Carol Wilson, Freedom at Risk: The Kidnapping of Free Blacks in America, 1780-1865: https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_african_american_studies/11/
– Smithsonian Associates, The Reverse Underground Railroad: Slavery and Kidnapping in Pre-Civil War America: https://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/programs/reverse-underground-railroad
– Library of Congress, 1839 United States map by David H. Burr and John Arrowsmith: https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3700.rr000060/
– Library of Congress, The American Traveller; or, Guide Through the United States: https://www.loc.gov/item/18000843/
– Library of Congress, View of Washington City and Georgetown: https://www.loc.gov/resource/pga.03021/
– NOAA vessel-rig reference used for general brig morphology: https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/38226/noaa_38226_DS1.pdf
Production note:
Some scenes are AI-assisted historical illustrations created to clarify documented events. They are not archival footage. Archival records, maps and source material are identified where used.
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