My name is Solomon Northup, I was kidnapped and became a slave during twelve years in Louisiana. I was sold like a vulgar piece of meat. My buyer gave me a new name. I worked up to nineteen hours a day and sometimes more longer in the plantation. In fact in the cotton fields we worked from the sunrise until the sunset.In my first plantation, beatings and whippings were a common punishment. sometimes when my master was not satisfed or my work he whipped me or he used also neck collars or leg irons. It was as if I was in hell. Even if owners controlled us , work and physically they could not control our minds.
I was moved from one property to another so many times.
