Twelve Years a Slave - Enhanced Edition (46 page)

Chapter Twenty-Two

210.
The two Northups, Henry and Solomon, arrived in Washington, D.C., before January 18, 1853, the day an arrest was made of James H. Birch. The Northups participated in the trial of Birch and left for New York shortly after the trial was over [See
New York Daily Times
, January 19, 1853]. No records have been found and none probably exists of the Washington, D.C. trial of James H. Birch. From the National Archives, Washington, D.C. to Sue Eakin, July 17, 1995:

This is in response to your May 3, 1995, letter, referral from our military record section, regarding the lawsuit against James H. Burch [
sic
].

We have searched dockets of the U.S. Circuit Court as well as the criminal dockets of the U.S. Criminal Court for the District of Columbia Records of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (Record Group 21), but did not locate a reference to the above lawsuit.

Signed by John K. Vandereedt, Archives 1 Reference Branch, Textual Reverence Division.[See Vandereedt to Eakin]

After Freedom Notes

211.
Mabee records from contemporary records: “Blacks are ‘growing up in ignorance of . . . everything that belongs to civilization,’ said the
Long
Island Farmer
of December 5, 1822. They ‘have nowhere to look for instruction but to the Sabbath schools’.” Mabee continues, “. . . beginning about 1815, Sunday Schools sprang up in New York State.” While some whites helped found and teach in Sunday Schools for blacks, others organizing Sunday Schools for blacks “ran into continuous difficulty in finding adequate places for their Sunday school to meet . . . The reason for the difficulty, reported the Albany Sunday School society, which sponsored the school, was ‘the prejudice excited against the enlightening of these people.’” Mabee further continues, “In New York City in the 1860s Quakers discovered that when they tried to run a Sunday School for blacks, they often had to shift location, for ‘teaching them niggers’ was . . . very unpopular. Hoodlums sometimes pelted the teachers with stones” [See Mabee, 35-42].

212.
Fiske, David.
Solomon Northup: His Life Before and After Slavery,
11.

213.
Most colored men in Saratoga Springs did domestic work. The United States and Grand Union hotels, for instance, employed all-black kitchen and waiting staffs. Joseph Smith wrote in 1897, “The waiters employed at the Spa are usually colored men, the States never having had any other.” Similarly Joseph Jackson, chief steward at the Help’s Dining Room of the Grand Union Hotel, recalled his boyhood years in early twentieth century Saratoga, “Most of the colored men in Saratoga did hotel work. They were waiters and cooks” [See Armstead et al.,
A Heritage . . .
, 219]. Solomon was one of twenty-eight free men of color living in Saratoga Springs in 1840 [See Federal Census of Saratoga County, 1840, 495-537. See a map of 1840s Saratoga (with story points) and a sketch of the United States Hotel in the Extras & More section of our website at
www.TwelveYearsASlave.org
].

214.
Ibid
., 11-12.

215.
Ibid
., 12-13.

216.
The story of the legal proceedings following the arrest and identification of the kidnappers is told through testimony given in the hearing and through coverage by many New York newspapers.

217.
Documents for these three court cases are in the files of the Warren County Justice Court records; the Supreme Court of Warren County records; and the Wayne County Clerk’s office. [See Sale Between Abraham and Mary Ann Tice and Solomon Northup; John T.B. Traphagan and Charles R. Bennett vs. Solomon Northup; and Benjamin Carlle, Jr vs. Solomon Northup.]

218.
The Sandy Hill Herald
, March 22, 1853, in its note beginning with “Uncle Sol,” had this statement: “We are informed that an extensive publishing house in this state has offered Northup, the kidnapped slave, recently returned to this village, $3000 for the copyright of his book.”

219.
Under the title “Recovery of a Free Negro,” a writer in the
The Salem Press
of January 25, 1853, gave this information:

We congratulate Mr. NORTHUP on the successful termination of his benevolent mission; and full of confidence in the comity of our sister States, hope, at an early day, to lay before our readers the intelligence that the merchants, shipowners, stock-jobbers and other influential citizens of Arkansas have contributed a generous purse of—say $5200—to “indemnify” this colored man in part for his twelve years of unpaid servitude, and to enable him to retire comfortably to a farm in Washington county or Texas, if he should prefer.

220.
See a map of Sandy Hill in the Extras & More section of our website at
www.TwelveYearsASlave.org
. The map includes the locations of Henry Northup’s home and residence, and the grave site of Solomon’s father, Mintus Northup. The website also includes a present-day photo of Solomon’s descendants.

221.
It is difficult to figure exactly how much time was spent in writing the book. Evidently the book was published prior to the summer of 1854, as the
Washington County Post
of July 14, 1852, published an account of the arrests and stated in the final paragraph that, “(t)he accused were discovered from the descriptions and incidents given in Northrup [
sic
] book.”

The two Northups, Henry and Solomon, arrived in Washington, D.C., before January 18, 1853, the day an arrest was made of James H. Birch. The Northups participated in the trial of Birch and left for New York shortly after the trial was over [See
New York Daily Times
, January 19, 1853].

The Salem Press
carried this note on August 16, 1853:

We purchased a few days since, of the veritable “Uncle Sol,” a volume of his work entitled
Solomon Northup
Twelve Years a Slave
; and perused its pages with great Interest–gathering from them much valuable information relative to the Institution of Slavery at the South, interwoven with a thrilling account of “Uncle Sol’s” hardships and privations during his twelve years of servitude. The work is chastely and elegantly written, reflecting great credit upon the editor, Hon. D. WILSON, and affords another evidence of his superior talent as a popular writer. For the sake of humanity and truth, we bespeak for the work an extensive sale. We hope Mr. Wilson may continue his labors as an author.

222.
New York historian Edward Knoblauch wrote: “In the Ballston Spa Village Cemetery there is the grave of an Isaac M. Van Namee, died 22 January 1900 at the age of 67 years, which would have made him about 21 years old in July of 1854” [See Knoblauch].

223.
Washington County People’s Journal
, July 20, 1854.

224.
“The People vs. Alexander Merrill and Joseph Russell.” In
Reports of Decisions in Criminal Cases Made at Term, in Chambers, and in the Courts of Oyer and Terminer of the State of New York
, compiled by Amasa J. Parker, 590-605. Vol. II. Albany, NY: Banks, Gould, and Co., 1856.

225.
Sonia Taub letter to Sue Eakin, April 23, 1993.

226.
Enos is recorded as saying “It is said that M[errill] some years ago endeavored to entice away a negro boy in his neighborhood, by persuading him to let him sell him, then run away and be again sold, each time dividing the booty . . . He is also said to have declared at one time that he followed kidnapping for years; and that he felt as safe in that business as that in any other business.” [See “Sol Northup’s Kidnappers,”
Washington
County People’s Journal
]

227.
Fiske, 17-18.

228.
Mann, 153.

229.
See Wyckoff, 136.