U mm…so what about Solomon Northup & Twelve Years A Slave?

Well, Solomon was born in 1807 or 1808. If his mama was a slave, he was born one too, and freed in 1827.

The only relevant question, then, is “Who was Sol’s mother and was she enslaved?”

Twelve Years A Slave (our main source of information on Solomon’s parentage) is very vague and, it seems, intentionally misleading. On and on it goes about Solomon’s free father. His father was manumitted slave, he farmed with his free father, his father owned enough property to vote.

His mother is mentioned only as having died while Sol was in Louisiana. Her delightfully hued quadroon skin tone is mentioned, as well. That’s it.

She has no name. She has no birthplace. There is nothing to identify her or where she came from…nothing to point to her free status.

In the petition prepared on Sol’s wife’s behalf…the instrument that proved to the governor that Solomon was free & should be rescued at New York’s expense…the woman who gave him his birthright to freedom remains nameless. She is referred to only as his father’s wife.

Of the six men who attested to Solomon’s free status, only one “swears positively” that Solomon was born a free man. The others simply state that they “believed and understood” or were informed that Solomon, his father and, in some instances, his mother were free people of color.

For good reason: of those six men, five were born around the same year as Solomon or would have been little kids when he was born. Doubtful that toddlers inquired after Solomon’s mother’s status at the time of his birth. Only the sixth had reached adulthood by the time Solomon entered the world.

Sure, the status of women in the mid-19th century was absolute crap. But in a petition that seeks to prove a man’s birthright of freedom, you damn sure better give a shout out to the woman who gave it to him.