(Illustration Credits 1.29)

AMONG THE READERS OF TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE was a judge from Fonda, New York, 50 miles from Solomon’s home in Glens Falls. His name was Thaddeus St. John. When Judge St. John read how Merrill Brown and Abram Hamilton sold Solomon into slavery in Washington, D.C., in 1841, he was reminded of an experience of his own at that very time.

While stopping in Baltimore during a trip to Washington, D.C., St. John had run into two acquaintances from New York State—Alexander Merrill and Joseph Russell—who were accompanied by a black man. “What are you doing here, Joe?” St. John asked Russell. Seemingly upset about being recognized, Russell and Merrill rushed up to St. John and requested that he not call them by their real names.

Judge St. John considered that mighty odd. Merrill and Russell soon displayed even more bizarre behavior. On the eve of President William Henry Harrison’s funeral procession, St. John met the same three men at Gadsby’s Hotel in Washington, D.C. He wasn’t sure what the black man was doing with them, but his impression was that he was not a slave. Then on his return trip to New York, St. John once again ran into Merrill and Russell, in Baltimore. This time the black man was not with them. Apparently having suddenly struck it rich, Merrill and Russell sported expensive new clothing along with gold watches and fancy canes. St. John, half-kidding, accused them of selling their black companion and remarked that they must have gotten $500 for him. To the judge’s surprise Merrill bragged that they had sold him for $150 more than that.

Judge St. John assumed they were joking, for selling a free black man—as their companion had appeared to be—was a serious crime. When St. John questioned them further, the two white men said that they were just pulling his leg. They had actually made a fortune—or so they claimed—by gambling with several southern gentlemen.

Reading about how the two “circus men” had sold Solomon Northup, Thaddeus St. John began to think that his two acquaintances were the guilty parties. After finishing Twelve Years a Slave, St. John wrote to Solomon and arranged to meet him in Fonda.

Despite the passage of time Thaddeus St. John and Solomon Northup recognized one another instantly. Solomon was the black man St. John had seen with Alexander Merrill and Joseph Russell. Evidently St. John’s two acquaintances really had sold Solomon Northup into slavery.

Solomon contacted Henry B. Northup and informed him that he had discovered the true identities of the two men who had lured him to Washington, D.C., and then sold him to Birch. Doing a little detective work, the two Northups learned that Alexander Merrill, alias Merrill Brown, was from Gloversville, New York, just 30 miles from where Solomon and his family had lived in Saratoga Springs. On the Fourth of July, 1854, Alexander Merrill visited Gloversville to enjoy the holiday festivities at his parents’ home. The two Northups aided the police in seizing Merrill, as described a few days later in the Albany Evening Journal:

Henry B. Northup has spent a great deal of time and money ferreting out the scoundrel, and they have no doubt got the man. Solomon identifies him without a doubt. Merrill has long been regarded as a desperate fellow. They found him asleep, with a heavy bowie knife and a brace of pistols on the floor by his side.

Bulletins circulated alerting police to be on the lookout for Joseph Russell, alias Abram Hamilton, the other man wanted for selling Solomon Northup into slavery. Shortly after Merrill was captured, two police officers found Russell working as a boat captain on New York’s Erie Canal. They arrested Russell, who along with his partner Merrill was jailed in a town a few miles from Saratoga Springs. Pending their trial, Russell and Merrill were each released on $5,000 bail, equal today to about $125,000.

Russell and Merrill’s trial for kidnapping and enslaving Solomon Northup opened in February 1855. The courtroom was packed, for Solomon’s book had made the case famous. As part of Russell and Merrill’s defense, slave dealer James Birch sent a statement to the court from Washington, D.C. It repeated Birch’s lie from his own trial that Solomon had been part of a scheme to sell himself into slavery. Birch added an extra touch this time, saying that Solomon wanted to be enslaved so badly that he played on a borrowed fiddle in the Washington, D.C., slave pen to prove his value.

Countering Birch’s story was Thaddeus St. John, who testified that he had seen Solomon with Russell and Merrill in Washington, D.C. St. John also repeated what Merrill had told him in Baltimore, that he and Russell had sold Solomon for $650.

Once again, enough doubt was cast on what had occurred that the defendants avoided a guilty verdict. Merrill and Russell, like Birch, were never punished for their crimes against Solomon Northup. Yet, despite not seeing justice done in his case, Solomon had regained what he treasured most: his freedom and his family.

Solomon received a $3,000 payment for the publication of his book—equal to around $75,000 today. He spent some of the money on a piece of land in Glens Falls next to the cottage where his married daughter Margaret lived with her husband and their child. Evidently Solomon planned to build a home for Anne and himself on the property, but he never did. Instead, he and Anne remained in Margaret’s house. To earn a living, Solomon worked as a carpenter. From time to time he also went on the road giving talks about his 12 years as a slave.

Samuel Bass had once told Solomon, “If I can succeed in getting you away from here, it will be a good act that I shall like to think of all of my life.” Had he lived a little longer, Bass might have visited Solomon and his family. But the man who had done so much to rescue Solomon from slavery became ill with pneumonia just a few months after Solomon’s return to New York State. In the summer of 1853, while still in Louisiana, Samuel Bass died at the age of only about 48. It is unknown whether Edwin Epps ever discovered that Bass sent the letters that helped free Solomon.

Around 1860, when he was in his early 50s, Solomon Northup disappeared from view. “We simply don’t know what became of him,” explains Renee Moore, who in 1999 founded an annual event in Saratoga Springs called Solomon Northup Day—A Celebration of Freedom. “He may have died of natural causes somewhere. Another guess is that he may have been killed by his abductors as he traveled about speaking about his ordeal and his autobiography. Thus far, his final resting place has not been determined.”

These few words by Solomon at the end of Twelve Years a Slave regarding his return home are a fitting memorial to him:

My heart overflowed as I looked upon old familiar scenes, and found myself in the midst of friends of other days … I had been restored to happiness and liberty.”