Solomon Northup was held by Edwin Epps in Avoyelles Parish for almost ten years. Epps was known for whipping enslaved people who missed their daily cotton quotas. In 1852 Northup confided in Samuel Bass, a carpenter, and Bass's letters carried the Marksville postmark. In early 1853 his New York lawyer, Henry B. Northup, came to Marksville and went with the sheriff to the Epps farm. Epps, advised that contesting Northup's free papers would fail, signed away his claim. Papers were signed at the Avoyelles Parish Courthouse on January 4, 1853, and Northup was free.
The Avoyelles Commission of Tourism put up a marker in front of the courthouse, on North Main Street (LA 115), that tells of the kidnapping, the years on Bayou Boeuf and the release. In January 2026 a bronze called Hope Out of Darkness by sculptor Wesley Wofford was unveiled beside it. Northup holds broken shackles in one hand and his papers in the other, and the mud he rises from carries real handprints of 12 people, which stand for the ripple effects of slavery and for those who were enslaved and never escaped. A local committee spent three years on the work.
The marker and statue stand outdoors on the courthouse grounds, which belong to a working government building. They belong to the Northup Trail, an 83-mile route from Alexandria to Marksville that also names Red River Landing, where Northup came ashore, the Epps plantation site, Bayou Boeuf, Ludger Barbin Landing and the Bunkie Depot Museum.
The closest stops worth working into your route
Roadside plaques and monuments within a short detour