Solomon Northup Solomon Northrup, a free African American from New York, arrived in Washington in 1841 in the company of two white men who had promised him a job as a fiddler. After a day touring the Capitol and White House Grounds, the men drugged him and handed him over to a <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/267">slave trader</a>. He was imprisoned in<a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/45"> Williams' Slave Pen</a> near the Mall, and then sold into <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/475">slavery</a> for $1,000. He labored for twelve years on a cotton plantation until northern abolitionists, hearing of his plight, obtained his freedom through a series of legal battles in 1853. <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=39&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Solomon+Northup">Solomon Northup</a> <em>Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup</em> (London, 1853). <a title="Northup memoirs, e-book" href="http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/northup/northup.html">View original document.</a> <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1830-1859">1830-1859</a>