Having seen the film version of this I thought I was prepared to read Solomon's story but I really was not. Reading his story in his own words, hearing him tell his tale, his own struggles, doubts and determination to survive, to get home, is easily one of the hardest and easiest things I've done in my literary career. He writes clearly and without prejudice and passion beyond his desire and determination to survive, escape and find his way home. He doesn't colour his words with bitterness, hate or guilt. In fact he even provides explanation and understanding of Slavery and the men, women and children involved in it, on all sides, which makes his words all the more poignant as even in his final moments as a slave he holds no animosity towards his masters, even as a freeman he does not give in to the prejudices and hatred that would have consumed a lesser man. He just tells his story and lets you, the reader, decide what to feel about each involved. He even begins with a unspoken apology for writing his story as he doesn't believe it to be as interesting or unique as he has been told. He also reminds us of this in the final pages, pointing out that it is unlikely that his is the only story like this, that in fact there are probably hundreds if not thousands like him, taken as freeman and lost to Slavery. I can fully understand and wholehearted agree with the statement that this is one of the if not the best written narrative on Slavery. I would add however that it is also one of the calmest told narratives of one of the most emotive of subjects. Read it and you will understand.

This book is told from the view point of a man who was a slave, not some historian’s interpretation of the events or a novelist’s aggrandisement. It is a frank narrative of the events that surrounded one man’s persecution into a woeful existence and allows the reader to form their own opinion of the life of a slave. This is a unique enlightenment into the American slave system, of the 19th century, conveying the hypocrisy of the land of liberation, allowing insight into the prejudices and cruelty these men and women were subjected to. This novel is a sad read, such as was the enslavement of Solomon Northup but nonetheless an interesting one. The sadness is personified when you realise he almost accepts the situation when he is with “Master Ford” because of his kind treatment regardless of being a slave. Epps truly was a cruel man, like many other plantation owners at the time. Solomon was truly lucky of the intervention of Bass who rescued him from his persecution without whom, he would have spent the rest of his days forced to work as a Louisianan slave.