Solomon Northup is a free black man living in upstate New York with his family in the 1840s. He is a carpenter and a talented violin player. One day, two men approach him and ask if he will accompany them and play his fiddle as they travel to Washington DC to the circus they work for. Solomon agrees. Unfortunately, he is drugged and wakes up in what he discovers is a slave pen within view of the Capitol.
Burch, a cruel slave trader, beats Solomon and tells him never to mention that he is from the North and that he was kidnapped. Solomon is cowed into submission but is inconsolable about his new situation. He and several other slaves are taken down South to Louisiana to be sold. Solomon witnessed firsthand the horror of a slave mother being separated from her children.
He is sold to William Ford, a kindly minister with a small plantation in the Great Pine Woods. Ford treats Solomon and his other slaves well. Solomon is not beaten, has a decent degree of freedom, and distinguishes himself as a hard worker. However, a local carpenter who works for Ford, Tibeats, takes an immediate dislike to Solomon. He is an irascible, coarse, and cruel man, and it is to Solomon’s great despair that Ford’s pecuniary troubles lead him to sell Solomon (but with a mortgage) to Tibeats.
Tibeats is a terrible master. One day, he is frustrated with something that he thinks Solomon is doing wrong, and so he comes at him to whip him. Solomon feels wronged by this, grabs the whip, and beats Tibeats mercilessly. Tibeats runs off and Solomon realizes the extent of the wrong he has committed. Chapin, one of Ford’s overseers and someone who is well aware of how awful Tibeats is, steps in to prevent Tibeats from killing Solomon by reminding Tibeats of Ford’s mortgage.
Tensions between Tibeats and Solomon never return to normal, and they have another dangerous encounter where Solomon is nearly hanged. Tibeats sells Solomon to Edwin Epps, a man who boasts of his ability to break slaves.
Epps and his wife have two plantations near Bayou Boeuf, a swampy, dense area. Epps is as cruel, vengeful, and lascivious as Ford was kind and moral. He whips his slaves for any and all reasons, and he has a particular affinity for a slave named Patsey. Mistress Ford hates that her husband pursues Patsey, and thus Patsey is often between the two of them and is beaten frequently.
On Epps’s plantation, Solomon picks cotton; however, he is not skilled at it, so he is given other tasks. Sometimes he is hired out to other plantations; there are a few summers when he cuts cane down near the Gulf.
Solomon peppers his narrative with accounts of how cotton and cane are planted and harvested, what life for slaves is like—Christmas, victuals, relationships, desire to escape—and does not shy away from what a monstrous, corrupting system it is. He does not excuse masters for their behavior, but he does acknowledge that the system itself is what is so pervasive and must be eradicated to make real changes.
Solomon’s fortunes take a turn for the better when an itinerant carpenter named Bass comes to work for Epps for a time. Solomon can hear Bass talking frankly and sincerely to Epps about how he thinks slavery is a terrible system and must be eradicated. Epps only laughs and blames Bass’s views on him being from Canada. Solomon comes to believe that Bass is the man to help him, so one day he begins telling him about the places he knows in Canada and upstate New York. Shocked, Bass encourages him to continue, and Solomon tells him his whole miserable tale. Bass dedicates himself to helping Solomon attain his freedom.
It is a lengthy process, but Bass is able to convey letters to people Solomon knows in the North. Eventually, Henry B. Northup is given the power to act as agent for the Governor of New York to procure Solomon and begin court proceedings against Epps. He has to work with Louisiana senators and other government officials, but they are amenable to this rectification of wrongdoing.
Northup arrives at Epps’s place with a local sheriff who asks Solomon a series of questions to ensure he is telling the truth. Northup and Solomon embrace, and Solomon cannot contain his joy. The other slaves are incredulous that he had never told them.
Epps is angry that he has to relinquish Solomon, but he has no choice. Solomon returns home with Northup. A lengthy court proceeding begins against Burch, but he is not convicted of the kidnapping.
Solomon reunites with his family in a tender scene of joy and relief.
