Twelve Years a Slave

General editor essay / Henry Louis Gates Jr --
Introduction / Ira Berlin --
Suggestions for further reading --
Twelve Years A Slave: --
Editor\'s Preface --
Chapter 1: --
Introductory --
Ancestry --
Northup family --
Birth and parentage --
Mintus Northup --
Marriage with Anne Hampton --
Good Resolutions --
Champlain canal --
Rafting excursion to Canada --
Farming --
Violin --
Cooking --
Removal to Saratoga --
Parker and Perry --
Slaves and slavery --
Children --
Beginning of sorrow --
Chapter 2: --
Two strangers --
Circus company --
Departure from Saratoga --
Ventriloquism and legerdemain --
Journey to New York --
Free papers --
Brown and Hamilton --
Haste to reach the circus --
Arrival in Washington --
Funeral of Harrison --
Sudden sickness --
Torment of thirst --
Receding light --
Insensibility --
Chains and darkness --
Chapter 3: --
Painful meditations --
James H Burch --
Williams slave pen in Washington --
Lackey, Radburn --
Assert my freedom --
Anger of the trader --
Paddle and cat-o-ninetails --
Whipping --
New acquaintances --
Ray, Williams, and Randall --
Arrival of little Emily and her mother in the pen --
Maternal sorrows --
Story of Eliza --
Chapter 4: --
Eliza\'s sorrows --
Preparation to embark --
Driven through the streets of Washington --
Hail, Columbia --
Tomb of Washington --
Clem Ray --
Breakfast on the streamer --
Happy birds --
Aquia Creek --
Fredericksburgh --
Arrival in Richmond --
Goodin and his slave pen --
Robert, of Cincinnati --
David and his wife --
Mary and Lethe --
Clem\'s return --
His subsequent escape to Canada --
Brig Orleans --
James H Burch --
Chapter 5: --
Arrival at Norfolk --
Frederick and Maria --
Arthur, the freeman --
Appointed steward --
Jim, Cuffee, and Jenny --
Storm --
Bahama Banks --
Calm --
Conspiracy --
Long-boat --
Small-pox --
Death of Robert --
Manning, the sailor --
Meeting in the forecastle --
Letter --
Arrival at New Orleans --
Arthur\'s rescue --
Theophilus Freeman, the consignee --
Platt --
First night in the New Orleans slave pen --
Chapter 6: --
Freeman\'s industry --
Cleanliness and clothes --
Exercising in the show room --
Dance --
Bob, the fiddler --
Arrival of customers --
Slaves examined --
Old gentleman of New Orleans --
Sale of David, Caroline and Lethe --
Parting of Randal and Eliza --
Small-pox --
Hospital --
Recovery and return to Freeman\'s slave pen --
Purchaser of Eliza, Harry, and Platt --
Eliza\'s agony on parting from little Emily --
Streamboat Rodolph --
Departure from New Orleans --
William Ford --
Arrival at Alexandria, on Red River --
Resolutions --
Great Pine Woods --
Wild cattle --
Martin\'s summer residence --
Texas road --
Arrival at Master Ford\'s --
Rose --
Mistress Ford --
Sally, and her children --
John, the cook --
Walter, Sam, and Antony --
Mills on Indian Creek --
Sabbath days --
Sam\'s conversion --
Profit of kindness --
Rafting --
Adam Taydem, the little white man --
Cascalla and his tribe --
Indian Ball --
John M Tibets --
Storm approaching --
Chapter 8: --
Ford\'s embarrassments --
Sale to Tibests --
Chattel mortgage --
Mistress Ford\'s plantation on Bayou Boeuf --
Description of the latter --
Ford\'s brother-in-law, Peter Tanner --
Meeting with Eliza --
She still mourns for her children --
Ford\'s overseer, Chapin --
Tibeats\' abuse --
Keg of nails --
First fight with Tibeats --
His discomfiture and castigation --
Attempt to hang me --
Chapin\'s interference and speech --
Unhappy reflections --
Abrupt departure of Tibeats, Cook and Ramsay --
Lawson and the brown mule --
Message to the pine woods --
Chapter 9: --
Hot sun --
Yet bound --
Cords sink into my flesh --
Chapin\'s uneasiness --
Speculation --
Rachel, and her cup of water --
Suffering increases --
Happiness of slavery --
Arrival of Ford --
He cuts the Cords which bind me, and takes the rope from my neck --
Misery --
Gathering of the slaves in Eliza\'s cabin --
Their kindness --
Rachel repeats the occurrences of the day --
Lawson entertains his companions with an account of his ride --
Chapin\'s apprehensions of Tibeats --
Hired to Peter Tanner --
Peter expounds the scriptures --
Description of the stocks --
Chapter 10: --
Return to Tibeats --
Impossibility of pleasing him --
He attacks me with a hatchet --
Struggle over the broad-axe --
Temptation to murder him --
Escape across the plantation --
Observations from the fence --
Tibeats approaches, followed by the hounds --
They take my track --
Their loud yells --
They almost overtake me --
I reach the water --
Hounds confused --
Moccasin snakes --
Alligators --
Night in the \"Great Pacoudrie Swamp\" --
Sounds of life --
North-West course --
Emerge into the pine woods --
Slave and his young master --
Arrival at Ford\'s --
Food and rest --
Chapter 11: --
Mistress\' garden --
Crimson and golden fruit --
Orange and pomegranate tress --
Return to Bayou Beouf --
Master Ford\'s remarks on the way --
Meeting with Tibeats --
His account of the chase --
Ford censures his brutality --
Arrival at the plantation --
Astonishment of the slaves on seeing me --
Anticipated flogging --
Kentucky John --
Mr Eldret, the planter --
Eldret\'s Sam --
Trip to the \"big cane brake\" --
Tradition of \"Sutton\'s Field\" --
Forest trees --
Gnats and mosquitoes --
Arrival of black women in the big cane --
Lumber women --
Sudden appearances of Tibeats --
His provoking treatment --
Visit to Bayou Boeuf --
Slave pass --
Southern hospitality --
Last of Eliza --
Sale to Edwin Epps. Chapter 12: --
Personal appearance of Epps --
Epps, drunk and sober --
Glimpse of his history --
Cotton growing --
Mode of ploughing and preparing ground --
Of planting --
Of hoeing, of picking, of treating raw hands --
Difference in cotton pickers --
Patsey a remarkable one --
Tasked according to ability --
Beauty of cotton field --
Slave\'s labors --
Fear on approaching the Gin-house --
Weighting --
Chores --
Cabin life --
Corn mill --
Uses of the gourd --
Fear of oversleeping --
Fear continually --
Mode of cultivating corn --
Sweet potatoes --
Fertility of the soil --
Fattening hogs --
Preserving bacon --
Raising cattle --
Shooting --
Matches --
Garden products --
Flowers and verdure --
Chapter 13: --
Curious Axe-helve --
Symptoms of approaching illness --
Continue to decline --
Whip ineffectual --
Confined to the cabin --
Visit by Dr Wines --
Partial recovery --
Failure at cotton picking --
What may be heard on Epps\' plantation --
Lashes graduated --
Epps in a Whipping mood --
Epps in a dancing mood --
Description of the dance --
Loss of rest no excuse --
Epps\' characteristics --
Jim Burns --
Removal from Huff Power to Bayou Boeuf --
Description of Uncle Abram
 of Wiley
 of Aunt Phebe
 of Bob, Henry, and Edward
 of Patsey
 with a genealogical account of each --
Something of their past history, and peculiar characteristics --
Jealousy and lust --
Patsey, the victim --
Chapter 14: --
Destruction of the cotton crop in 1845 --
Demand for laborers in St Mary\'s Parish --
Sent thither in a drove --
Order of the march --
Grand Coteau --
Hired to Judge Turner on Bayou Salle --
Appointed driver in his sugar house --
Sunday services --
Slave furniture
 how obtained --
Party at Yarney\'s in Centreville --
Good fortune --
Captain of the steamer --
His refusal to secret me --
Return to Bayou Boeuf --
Sight of Tibeats --
Patsey\'s sorrows --
Tumult and contention --
Hunting the coon and opossum --
Cunning of the latter --
Lean condition of the slave --
Description of the fish trap --
Murder of the man from Natchez --
Epps challenged by Marshall --
Influence of slavery --
Love of freedom --
Chapter 15: --
Labors on sugar plantations --
Mode of planting cane --
Of hoeing cane --
Cane ricks --
Cutting cane --
Description of the cane knife --
Winrowing --
Preparing for succeeding crops --
Description of Hawkin\'s sugar mill on Bayou Boeuf --
Christmas holidays --
Carnival season of the children of bondage --
Christmas supper --
Red, the favorite color --
Violin, and the consolation it afforded --
Christmas dance --
Lively, the coquette --
Sam Roberts, and his rivals --
Slave songs --
Southern life as it is --
Three days in the year --
System of marriage --
Uncle Abram\'s contempt of matrimony --
Chapter 16: --
Overseers --
How they are armed and accompanied --
Homicide --
His execution at Marksville --
Slave-drivers --
Appointed driver on removing to Bayou Boeuf --
Practice make perfect --
Epps attempt to cut Platt\'s throat --
Escape from him --
Protected by the mistress --
Forbids reading and writing --
Obtain a sheet of paper after nine years\' effort --
Letter --
Armsby, the mean white --
Partially confide in him --
His treachery --
Epps\' suspicions --
How they were quieted --
Burning the letter --
Armsby leaves the Bayou --
Disappointment and despair --
Chapter 17: --
Wiley disregards the counsels of Aunt Phebe and Uncle Abram, and is caught by the patrollers --
Organization and duties of the latter --
Wiley runs away --
Speculations in regard to him --
His unexpected return --
His capture on Red River, and confinement in Alexandria jail --
Discovered by Joseph B Roberts --
Subduing dogs in anticipation of escape --
Fugitives in the great pine woods --
Captured by Adam Taydem and the Indians --
Augustus killed by dogs --
Nelly, Eldret\'s slave woman --
Story of Celeste --
Concerted movement --
Lew Cheney, the traitor --
Idea of insurrection --
Chapter 18: --
O\'Neil, the tanner --
Conversation with Aunt Phebe overheard --
Epps in the tanning business --
Stabbing of Uncle Abram --
Ugly wound --
Epps is jealous --
Patsey missing --
Her return from Shaw\'s --
Harriet, Shaw\'s black wife --
Epps enraged --
Patsey denies his charges --
She is tied down naked to four stakes --
Inhuman flogging --
Flaying of Patsey --
Beauty of the day --
Bucket of salt water --
Dress stiff with blood --
Patsey grows melancholy --
Her idea of god and eternity --
Of heaven and freedom --
Effect of slave-whipping --
Epps\' oldest son --
Child is father to the man --
Chapter 19: --
Avery, of Bayou Rouge --
Peculiarity of dwellings --
Epps builds a new house --
Bass, the carpenter --
His noble qualities --
His personal appearance and eccentricities --
Bass and Epps discuss the question of slavery --
Epps\' opinion of Bass --
I make myself known to him --
Our conversation --
His surprise --
Midnight meeting on the Bayou bank --
Bass\' assurances --
Declares war against slavery --
Why I did not disclose my history --
Bass writes letters --
Copy of his letter to Messrs Parker and Perry --
Fever of suspense --
Disappointments --
Bass endeavors to cheer me --
My faith in him --
Chapter 20: --
Bass faithful to his word --
His arrival on Christmas Eve --
Difficulty of obtaining an interview --
Meeting in the cabin --
Non-arrival of the letter --
Bass announces his intention to proceed North --
Christmas --
Conversation between Epps and bass --
Young Mistress McCoy, the beauty of Bayou Boeuf --
Ne plus ultra of dinners --
Music and dancing --
Presence of the Mistress --
Her exceeding beauty --
Last slave dance --
William Pierce --
Oversleep myself --
Last whipping --
Despondency --
Cold morning --
Epps\' threats --
Passing carriage --
Strangers approaching through the cotton field --
Last hour on Bayou Boeuf --
Chapter 21: --
Letter reaches Saratoga --
Is forwarded to Anne --
Is laid before Henry B Northup --
Statute of May 14, 1840 --
Its provisions --
Anne\'s memorial to the governor --
Affidavits accompanying it --
Senator Soule\'s letter --
Departure of the agent appointed by the governor --
Arrival at Marksville --
Hon John P Waddill --
Conversation on New York politics --
It suggests a fortunate idea --
Meeting with Bass --
Secret out --
Legal proceedings instituted --
Departure of Northup and the sheriff from Marksville for Bayou Boeuf --
Arrangements on the way --
Reach Epps\' plantation --
Discover his slaves in the cotton field --
Meeting --
Farewell --
Chapter 22: --
Arrival in New Orleans --
Glimpse of Freeman --
Genois, the recorder --
His description of Solomon --
Reach Charleston --
Interrupted by custom house officers --
Pass through Richmond --
Arrival in Washington --
Burch arrested --
Shekels and thorn --
Their testimony --
Burch acquitted --
Arrest of Solomon --
Burch withdraws the complaint --
Higher tribunal --
Departure from Washington --
Arrival at Sandy Hill --
Old friends and familiar scenes --
Proceed to Glens Falls --
Meeting with Anne, Margaret, and Elizabeth --
Solomon Northup Staunton --
Incidents --
Conclusion --
Appendix --
Index.