Born as a free man of colour in Minerva, New York, in July 1808, Solomon Northup received a decent education and worked at the family farm. He held numerous jobs, and charmed his audiences as a fiddler. In December 1829, he married Anne Hampton from whom he had three children. In 1841, Northup was tricked by two men who offered him a job and took him to Washington, D.C. where he was drugged and sold into slavery. He obtained freedom in January 1853, after being a slave for twelve years under several masters. The same year, he penned and published his memoir called Twelve Years a Slave. A slave narrative, it sold thirty thousand copies within three years of its publication, becoming a bestseller. Subsequently, Northup undertook lecture tours, speaking about slavery, and became an active abolitionist. His last public appearance was in 1857, after which he disappeared. Though the details of his later life are not known, he is believed to have died in 1863.