<P> In 1841 , Solomon Northup is a free African - American man working as a violinist , living with his wife and two children in Saratoga Springs , New York . Two white men , Brown and Hamilton , offer him short - term employment as a musician if he will travel with them to Washington , D.C. However , once they arrive they drug Northup and deliver him to a slave pen run by a man named Burch . Northup proclaims that he is a free man , only to be savagely beaten with , at first , a wooden paddle , then , a leather belt . Northup is later shipped to New Orleans along with other captive African Americans . He is told by the others that if he wants to survive in the South , he must adapt to being a slave and not tell anyone he is a free man . A slave trader named Freeman gives Northup the identity of `` Platt '' , a runaway slave from Georgia , and sells him to plantation owner William Ford . Tension grows between Northup and a plantation overseer which ends with Northup savagely beating and whipping the overseer . To save Northup 's life , Ford sells him to another slave owner named Edwin Epps . In the process , Northup attempts to explain that he is actually a free man , but Ford tells him he is too afraid and that he can not help him now . </P>
<P> In 1841 , Solomon Northup is a free African - American man working as a violinist , living with his wife and two children in Saratoga Springs , New York . Two white men , Brown and Hamilton , offer him short - term employment as a musician if he will travel with them to Washington , D.C. However , once they arrive they drug Northup and deliver him to a slave pen run by a man named Burch . Northup proclaims that he is a free man , only to be savagely beaten with , at first , a wooden paddle , then , a leather belt . Northup is later shipped to New Orleans along with other captive African Americans . He is told by the others that if he wants to survive in the South , he must adapt to being a slave and not tell anyone he is a free man . A slave trader named Freeman gives Northup the identity of `` Platt '' , a runaway slave from Georgia , and sells him to plantation owner William Ford . Tension grows between Northup and a plantation overseer which ends with Northup savagely beating and whipping the overseer . To save Northup 's life , Ford sells him to another slave owner named Edwin Epps . In the process , Northup attempts to explain that he is actually a free man , but Ford tells him he is too afraid and that he can not help him now . </P>
where did 12 years a slave take place
where did 12 years a slave take place
New Orleans
New Orleans