Twelve Years a Slave – Solomon Northup

"I don't want to survive. I want to live."

Solomon Northup, a free-born African American violinist living in New York, is kidnapped in 1841 and sold into slavery in the Deep South. For twelve years, he endures the brutality of plantation life in Louisiana under various masters, struggling to hold onto his dignity and hope until he is finally able to get word to his family and regain his freedom.

Northup's memoir is a gripping and detailed historical document. Unlike many other narratives, it offers the perspective of a free man who was stolen, providing a unique and devastating critique of the American legal and social systems that allowed such atrocities.