I have scoured annotated versions of Northup’s text, census records, court documents, online genealogy databases, libraries, and newspapers from the era. What became of this girl, Northup’s close acquaintance and one of the major figures in his book, who was terrorized by her master and mistress? Did she succumb to one of the bouts of disease that swept the Louisiana-bayou slave communities? Did Epps’s severe beatings or his wife’s unhinged jealousy take their toll, or did he perhaps sell her some time after 1853? Was she secreted away by members of the Underground Railroad? Did she survive until emancipation rolled through the area via the Red River Campaign in 1864, then travel elsewhere? Or did she remain in Louisiana?įor more than two months, I have considered these possibilities and more, in an attempt to respond to Patsey’s plea. Yet Patsey’s haunting question, “What’ll become of me?”, remains unanswered. Last year's big-screen adaptation of his narrative, 12 Years a Slave, is currently nominated for nine Academy Awards-including a best supporting actress nod for the woman who plays Patsey, Lupita Nyong’o. One hundred sixty-one years later, Northup's account of his kidnapping and time as a slave on Edwin Epps's Louisiana plantation has been authenticated by scholars with annotated versions of Northup’s book, supplemental textbooks and articles detailing his life. When a free black man named Solomon Northup was rescued from 12 years of bondage in January of 1853, a fellow slave, a young woman named Patsey, called after him tearfully.
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