Twelve Years a Slave

By: Solomon Northup

Narrated by: Louis Gossett Jr.

Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Official Movie Tie-in Audiobook for the Academy Award's Best Picture and Golden Globe's Best Drama winner.

New York Times and USA Today Bestseller.

In this riveting landmark autobiography which reads like a novel, Academy Award and Emmy winner Louis Gossett, Jr., masterfully transports us to 1840s New York, Washington, D.C., and Louisiana to experience the kidnapping and twelve years of bondage of Solomon Northup, a free man of color. Twelve Years a Slave, published in 1853, was an immediate bombshell in the national debate over slavery leading up to the Civil War. It validated Harriett Beecher Stowe’s fictional account of Southern slavery in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which had become the best-selling American book in history a few years earlier and significantly changed public opinion in favor of abolition. Experience our official movie tie-in audiobook for the award-winning motion picture, directed by Steve McQueen and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Brad Pitt, Paul Giamatti, Michael Fassbender, and Lupita Nyong'o. This audio edition with an accompanying custom map is based on the research of Dr. Sue Eakin, the nationally recognized authority on Solomon Northup who spent a lifetime authenticating his story.

Hard working Solomon Northup, an educated free man of color in 1841, enjoys family life with his wife and three children in Saratoga, New York. He delights his community with his fiddle playing and antic spirit, and has positive expectations of all he meets. When he is deceived by “circus promoters” to accompany them to a musical gig in the nation’s capital, his joyful life takes an unimaginable turn. He awakens in shackles to find he has been drugged, kidnapped and bound for the slave block in D.C.

After Solomon is shipped 1,000 miles to New Orleans, he is assigned his slave name and quickly learns that the mere utterance of his true origin or rights as a freeman are certain to bring severe punishment or death. While he endures the brutal life of a slave in Louisiana’s isolated Bayou Boeuf plantation country, he must learn how to play the system and plot his escape home.

For 12 years, his fine mind captures the reality of slavery in stunning detail, as we learn about the characters that populate plantation society and the intrigues of the bayou – from the collapse of a slave rebellion resulting in mass hangings due to traitorous slave Lew Cheney, to the tragic abuse of his friend Patsey because of Mrs. Epps’ jealousy of her husband’s sexual exploitation of his pretty young slave.

When Solomon finally finds a sympathizing friend who risks his life to secret a letter to the North, a courageous rescue attempt ensues that could either compound Solomon’s suffering, or get him back to the arms of his family.

AUTHENTICATION: Northup’s harrowing first-hand account was authenticated from decades of research by Dr. Sue Eakin, who rediscovered the original narrative as a 12-year old in 1931 and made it her life’s work.

For additional audio clips, background info and images, see our website at www.12YearsASlaveBook.com.

Download your unique free map based on Solomon's narrative.

©2013 Eakin Films & Publishing (P)2013 Eakin Films & Publishing

Critic reviews

“...Gossett infuses the words with a quiet, seething power." ( AudioFile, 2013)

“I can never read his account of his days in slavery, of his independence of spirit, of his determination to be free…without believing that it would make a difference in today's world if our contemporaries knew of such a man as Solomon Northup." (Dr. John Hope Franklin, past president of the American Historical Association, best-selling author, recipient of Presidential Medal of Freedom, nation's highest civilian honor)

"[T]he extraordinary narrative of Solomon Northup is the most remarkable book that was ever issued from the American press." ( Detroit Tribune, original 1853 review) "Its truth is far greater than fiction." (Frederick Douglass, famous writer, former slave and abolitionist) "It will be read extensively, both at the North and the South." ( New York Tribune, 1853, published by Horace Greeley)

Moved! The best Audible Book yet enjoyed.

Words cannot express the treasure of this story, the superb narration, nor the appreciation of what must have gone into making it possible.

Just wow.

I love this book. The matter of fact manor in which it's written makes the events that much more horrific. A story worthy of telling.

One of the best books I've ever read.

This book is fantastic! It has the heart of a great novel yet the depth of detail and the richness of fact like an encyclopedia. the author presents his story with keen objectiveness and still manages to suck you into his experiences.

Everyone should read this book

I loved it. finished in one week. Will recommend to everyone. My people Stay Woke

Breathtaking

The plight of Solomon Northrup broke my heart. This book serves as a reminder of man’s cruelty and the inhumane awfulness of slavery in all its forms. Five stars all around.

Excellent autobiography of a slave.

This is a heartbreaking story... no human being should suffer such fate!...Though at last he was freed

An exceptionally great book and great performance

I can't begin to really understand how it must have felt to be Mr. Northrup, having lived through his life, but after hearing him tell his story through the voice of Louis Gosset Jr., I have some sense of his experience. It's hard to call this a "great" book, given it's such heart-wrenching story within a very sad historical period. But I got a lot from it, and I would highly recommend it for anybody.

Very impactful!!!! Amazing story!

This extraordinary contemporaneous account of the enslavement of a free man makes the daily horror of slavery painfully real. Yet, I found one of the most brilliant moments in the authors story to be when he describes the detrimental effect that the ignominy of slavery has on the slave master and on the slave holding society. A must read at this moment in our history when we are being forced to face a legacy of racism; the puss that has continued to seep from the old wound of slavery.

Excellent!

loved it. Mr gosset is a great reader. I enjoyed both the written words and his spoken rendition. A must read. We should not forget.

Twelve Years A Skave

Absolutely incredible. What a story of our past. I can only think of how blessed and thankful I am to be here because of what Mr. Northrop and thousands of others did to secure our freedom and Liberty. I am forever grateful.

THANK YOU to Dr. Eaton for all of her work and research. Thank you to Mr. Louis Gossett, Jr. I felt so much of this story (joy and pain) because his incredible skill.

Audible! You’ve done it again. Excellent presentation. 👏🏾