Solomon Northup, "Twelve Years a Slave"

Northup's release was a legal process as much as a rescue. New York had passed a law in 1840 committing the state to aid residents kidnapped into slavery, which is why Governor Washington Hunt made Henry B. Northup his agent. In Avoyelles a local attorney, John P. Waddill, handled the searches and paperwork. Epps gave way when told a court fight over Solomon's free papers would fail. No one paid for the crime: Birch was acquitted in Washington because Northup could not testify under District law, and New York dropped its case in 1857.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Avoyelles Parish Courthouse: Solomon Northup Marker — steps away
  The Marksville courthouse where Solomon Northup was freed in January 1853, with a marker and a 2026 bronze that shows him rising from the mud.
• Tunica-Biloxi Museum — 1.1 mi
  The Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana's own museum at Marksville, built around the Tunica Treasure that the tribe won back in court.
• Epps House: Solomon Northup's Gateway to Freedom — 21 mi
  The Creole cottage Solomon Northup helped build for the man who enslaved him, moved twice and now a small museum on the LSU Alexandria campus.
• Arna Bontemps African American Museum — 26 mi
  The restored Alexandria house where the Harlem Renaissance writer Arna Bontemps was born in 1902, on the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail.

More markers nearby

• Founding Of Marksville — steps away
• The First Bowie Knife — steps away
• Louisiana's Atchafalaya Basin — steps away
• Fort De Russy — steps away