Summary Of Solomon Northup

Solomon Northup was raised in New York is whole life by his father Mintus; his father was given his freedom after his master had died. Since his father was a free man that made Solomon also a free black man also. Solomon grows up and marries Anne Hampton and together they have three children. Solomon finds work being a talented violin artist. This talent however would get Solomon into a lot of trouble down the road. A rough stretch of unemployment burdened Solomon so one day he met two men who had been looking for talent for the circus. These two men were Merrill Brown and Abram Hamilton, they told Solomon they would pay him very well to travel and play his violin in the circus. Solomon describes the two men as "I was met by two gentlemen …show more content…
Solomon and the other slaves were handed over to a man named Theophilus Freeman, a nasty slave trader who changed Solomon’s name to Platt. Solomon spends his next days in Freemans slave house waiting to be bought and sent off to a plantation. While waiting at the slave auction Solomon noticed a small boy with a violin and started to play, Solomon explained, "I struck up a tune, and finished it." (IBID, 54) William Ford a plantation owner purchased both Eliza and Solomon and brought them back to his home in central Louisiana. Solomon describes Mr. Ford to the reader, as “in my opinion, there was never a more kind, noble, candid, Christian man than William Ford." (IBID, 61) Solomon is sent to work in the lumberyard where he quickly shows he’s very skillful. Mr. Ford recognizes Solomon as being especially intelligent and hardworking in the yard. Solomon was able to come up with a water system that saved Mr. Ford a good amount of money. However, tough times brought Mr. Ford to sell Solomon to one of his workers a John M. Tibeats. Solomon describes Mr. Tibeats, as "John M. Tibeats was the opposite of Ford in all respects." (IBID, 69) Solomon was forced to work with Tibeats and they were unable to work peacefully. One day Tibeats goes to whip Solomon and he just had enough and fought back. The two wrestled around but Solomon being the stronger man beat Tibeats until he was forced to retreat. Solomon described their fight as " Reaching down, I seized him by the ankle, and pushing back with the other hand, he fell over on to the ground. Putting one arm around his leg, and holding it to my breast, so that is head and shoulders touched the ground, I placed my foot upon his neck. He was completely out of power." (IBID, 74) Tibeats did not take this loss lightly; he and two other white men came tied Solomon up and prepared to hang him. Lucky Mr. Chapin saw what happened and chased the men