Twelve Years a Slave

The shocking first-hand account of one man's remarkable fight for freedom; now an award-winning motion picture. n n n `Why had I not died in my young years - before God had given me children to love and live for? What unhappiness and suffering and sorrow it would have prevented.

I sighed for liberty; but the bondsman's chain was round me, and could not be shaken off.' n n n 1841: Solomon Northup is a successful violinist when he is kidnapped and sold into slavery. Taken from his family in New York State - with no hope of ever seeing them again - and forced to work on the cotton plantations in the Deep South, he spends the next twelve years in captivity until his eventual escape in 1853. n n n First published in 1853, this extraordinary true story proved to be a powerful voice in the debate over slavery in the years leading up to the Civil War.

It is a true-life testament of one man's courage and conviction in the face of unfathomable injustice and brutality: its influence on the course of American history cannot be overstated. n