Rachel Seligman is Assistant Director for Curatorial Affairs at the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY. She was one of the principal organizers of a major exhibition on the life of Solomon Northup at Union College's Nott Memorial Hall in 1999. She holds a master's degree in art history from George Washington University.
Primary Contributions (1)
American farmer, labourer, and musician whose experience of being kidnapped and sold into slavery was the basis for his book Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, from a Cotton Plantation near the Red River in Louisiana (1853). Northup was born a free person of colour in what is now Minerva, New York. Though he claimed to have been born in July 1808 in Twelve Years a Slave, a later deposition in which he specified his birth date and age indicates that he was likely born a year earlier. His father, Mintus, had been born into slavery but was freed following the death of his master, Capt. Henry Northup, whose will contained the stipulation that his slaves be manumitted. Mintus eventually acquired his own farm and enough land to fulfill the property ownership requirement that African Americans faced in order to vote. Solomon received some education and worked on his family’s farm as a child.He...READ MORE
Solomon Northup: The Complete Story of the Author of Twelve Years a Slave (2013)
A companion to the classic African-American autobiographical narrative, Twelve Years A Slave, this work presents fascinating new information about the 1841 kidnapping, 1853 rescue, and pre- and post-slavery life of Solomon Northup.• For the first time, a book documents the full story of Northup's life―the basis of the 2013 movie, Twelve Years a Slave, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender, and Paul Giamatti• Supplies detailed coverage of Northup's...READ MORE