Twelve Years a Slave
1853 · 432 pages
Northup was a free New Yorker with a family and a violin. Lured to Washington in 1841, he woke chained in a slave pen and spent twelve years on Louisiana cotton plantations.
★ 6.9
The Books canon
Sourced and shelved.
Every book chosen by hand and annotated for why it matters.
Browse all 1,178 books or filter by subject, era, place, and author.
Browse all 1,178 books or filter by subject, era, place, and author.
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
1861 · 176 pages
Seven years in a crawlspace three feet high, watching her children through a peephole. Jacobs named what men's slave narratives left out: the owner who pursued her from her teens.
★ 6.8