Epps House: Solomon Northup's Gateway to Freedom

Edwin Epps had this Creole cottage built in 1852 on Bayou Boeuf near Holmesville, in Avoyelles Parish. Solomon Northup, a free Black man from New York who was kidnapped in Washington in 1841 and sold in New Orleans, was enslaved by Epps from 1843 to 1853, and as a carpenter he helped build it. On the job he got to know Samuel Bass, a Canadian carpenter, and told him who he was. Bass's letters to New York set in motion the rescue that freed Northup in January 1853.

The house did not stay where Northup worked on it. It went to Bunkie in 1976, and in 1999 it was taken apart, partly rebuilt with replacement materials and put up again at LSU Alexandria, which bought it for its Center for Studies of Life on Plantations. History professor Sue Eakin, who spent her career on Northup's book, pressed to save it. The National Register of Historic Places delisted the house in 2017. The original site, off LA 1176 on Carl Hunt Road, is a stop on the Northup Trail.

Inside, the exhibit covers Northup and the Northup Trail, with a tribute to Eakin, period folk art and a digital display of music Northup wrote. Cenla Focus lists the house as open Thursday to Sunday, noon to 4 p.m., and by appointment, free; the house had closed in 2021 for structural repairs, so call (318) 445-3672 first. Northup's release from Epps happened in Marksville, at the courthouse covered in the Avoyelles Parish Courthouse entry.