Solomon Northup/"Platt"
Solomon Northup is the author of Twelve Years a Slave. Born a free man in New York in 1808, he is kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841. After being kidnapped, he is given a slave name: Platt. He remains a slave until January, 1853. During his time as a slave, he keeps journals outlining everything he experienced, making the faithfulness to his experiences in his novel, Twelve Years a Slave, possible.
Solomon is at an advantage during his time as a slave due to the experiences he had and education he received prior to his kidnapping. He is intelligent, charming, and likeable, which helps him obtain higher positions and survive during his slavery. He is a skilled violinist, and this talent makes him favorable for entertainment among slaveowners. His violin is one of the only ways he keeps hope in his heart, especially as he plans to escape numerous times but cannot carry it out successfully until twelve years have passed.
He endeavors to be as true and faithful as possible to his experiences, sparing no one but also acknowledging that some slaveowners were kind.
Anne Hampton Northup
Anne is Solomon's wife. She and Solomon married on Christmas in 1829, and they have three children.
Merrill Brown and Abram Hamilton
Brown and Hamilton tell Solomon that they are members of a circus and are interested in his violin skills. They tell him that he will be paid one dollar per day, and three dollars for every performance if he accompanies them to New York City and Washington DC. One night at dinner, they drug Solomon and give him to the slave dealer James H. Burch. Solomon spends much time wondering about their complicity in the whole matter: they were very kind to him, but he ultimately decides that they must have been in on it.
James H. Burch
Burch is a slave trader who takes control of Solomon and sells him down South. Burch beats Solomon brutally when Solomon insists on his freedom. From this experience, Solomon learns that in order to survive, he must agree with what white people tell him.
Eliza
Eliza is a slave whom Solomon meets in the Washington DC slave pen. She has children, and she was promised that she and her children could remain together. However, they are ultimately separated. Eliza and Solomon are both bought by William Ford. Eliza's grief at being separated from her children is overwhelming, and Ford, annoyed, sells her to a new owner. Solomon notes that she becomes emaciated and depressed.
William Ford
Ford is Solomon's first owner. Solomon writes that Ford was kind to his slaves and was a moral Christian minister who could not be blamed for his views on slavery since it was the way he was raised. Solomon gains Ford's favor over and over again, and Ford comes to his defense in his troubles with Tibeats. Unfortunately, Ford has money troubles and has to sell Solomon.
John M. Tibeats
Tibeats is a carpenter who works at Ford's plantation. A man of terrible character, he is coarse, repulsive, uneducated, and prone to blaspemous curses. He despises Solomon and has two brutal encounters with him: he tries to kill Solomon, but Solomon is able to hold Tibeats off and beat him instead. Tibeats's poor reputation among other white men protects Solomon, for Ford and Chapin step in to prevent Tibeats from going further. Tibeats eventually sells Solomon to Epps.
Edwin Epps
Epps is Solomon's second owner. Epps is extremely cruel and inhumane, taking pride in breaking his slaves' spirits. He is consistently drunk and disorderly, waking the slaves up in the middle of the night to dance for him. He frequently rapes a female slave on his plantation, Patsey, which is a point of conflict for him and his wife. He beats the slaves indiscriminately, gives them the smallest rations possible, and rages when he hears that Solomon no longer (or never really did) belong to him. Solomon says flatly that Epps has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
Patsey
Patsey is a slave at Epps' plantation. She is the fastest cotton-picker on the plantation, and as such she has Epps's favor. She is young and attractive, which makes her a target of Epps' sexual violence. She is despised by Epps' wife, who orders her husband to beat his mistress frequently. After a particularly brutal beating, Patsey loses all of her spark and hope.
Henry B. Northup, Esq.
Northup is a relative of the family that held Solomon's father in slavery. He is an esteemed lawyer residing in Sandy Hook. He diligently pursues Solomon's deliverance from slavery, making preparations and then traveling down to Bayou Boeuf to get him.
Ebenezer Radburn
The lackey and turnkey of the slave trader Burch. He evinces a slim degree of sympathy for Solomon when he is in the slave pen.
Clemons "Clem" Ray
An older slave in the DC slave pen with Solomon, Clem is terrified of going South. Luckily, he gets to remain in the North and Solomon later learns he escaped to Canada.
John Williams
A slave in Williams' slave pen. He is later redeemed by his master.
Mr. Goodin
The keeper of a slave pen in Richmond.
Robert
A slave whom Solomon meets in Goodin's slave pen. He and Robert bond over the fact that both were captured freemen with families at home in the North. He dies of smallpox on the boat sailing down South.
Mr. Theophilus Freeman
Burch's partner, who calls Solomon "Platt." He is industrious, crude, and cruel.
Mistress Ford
A kind and lovely woman who treats her slaves well.
Mr. Chapin
Ford's overseer at his Indian Creek plantation. He is a fair and kind man who sticks up for Solomon when Solomon beats Tibeats. Chapin informs Tibeats that there is a mortgage on Solomon, that Tibeats is a lowly creature, and that he will defend Solomon.
Peter Tanner
Mistress Ford's brother, who owns an extensive plantation across the bayou. He hires Solomon to work carpentry at his place for a time. He tries to act severe, but Solomon "could perceive there was a vein of good humor in the old fellow, after all" (82).
Mr. Eldret
A plantation owner who lives below Ford and hires Solomon for carpentry work in the Big Cane Brake.
Mistress Epps
Solomon describes her as pretty, educated, and generally kind, but he notes that her jealousy and hatred of Patsey twisted her and made her encourage her husband to beat Patsey mercilessly. She is an example of how slavery corrupts otherwise "good" people.
Abram
An older and intelligent slave whose mind is now somewhat prone to confusion, Abram works for Epps. He remembers fondly his time with his former master and General Andrew Jackson, and he often regales the other slaves with these tales.
Wiley
Phebe's husband and one of Epps's slaves. He is very quiet. He runs away but is unsuccessful and is returned to Epps.
Phebe
Mother to Bob and Henry, and wife to Wiley on Epps's plantation. She is warm and garrulous.
Armsby
A man who Solomon thinks may be able to take a letter for him to Marksville. However, Armsby is untrustworthy and tells Epps that Solomon approached him about this matter. When Epps confronts Solomon, Solomon is able to lie and make Epps think Armsby was merely trying to get an overseer position at the plantation by suggesting that Epps had uncontrollable slaves.
Celeste
A runaway slave whose story Solomon relates. She spent time in the bayou trying to survive, and she would often get food from Solomon. She trained the dogs not to follow her, and she would have survived out there if not for her fear of the wild creatures. She eventually returned to her master.
Bass
An itinerant carpenter from Canada, Bass is strongly against slavery and does not hesitate to express those views—even when he is working down South. He is cool-headed and non-offensive, and the local planters like him. He is kind and principled, and he immediately offers to help Solomon when Solomon decides to tell him the truth about his identity. Bass delivers letters and plans to go to Saratoga for Solomon. He is able to tell Northup where Solomon is when Northup makes it to Marksville.
Judge Turner
A wealthy sugar plantation owner down near Mexico for whom Solomon works in 1845 when the cotton yield is destroyed due to caterpillars.
Madam McCoy
A young, beautiful, and kind mistress of a local plantation in Bayou Boeuf. Solomon writes that she is an example of how some slaveowners could be benevolent.
