There was a different kind of reunion on campus this July, when more than thirty descendants of Solomon Northup honored the man who was sold into slavery in 1841.
Led by ninety-year-old Victoria Northup Dunham, Northup's great-great-granddaughter, three generations of family came from as far away as Los Angeles to get acquainted with a relative who died long before they were born.
Northup, born a free black man, lived in Saratoga Springs with his wife and three children. In the spring of 1841, he was kidnapped and sold into slavery. After twelve years as a slave on various plantations in the South, he was rescued; his autobiographical account of those years, Twelve Years a Slave, became a bestseller in its time.
Northup's story was the subject of an enormously popular exhibit last spring in the Nott Memorial, created by Rachel Seligman, director and curator of the Mandeville Gallery, and Clifford Brown, professor of political science. A news story about the exhibit, which said it was not known if Northup had any living descendants, prompted the reunion. The exhibit ended in March, but the material that was lent to historical societies and libraries was reassembled in the Reamer Campus Center for the family gathering.
Lori Williams, an elementary school teacher from Syracuse, N.Y., said she was both sad and angry about slavery from learning what her great-great-great-greatgrandfather had experienced. “You don't feel the emotion until it hits you this close,” she said, pointing to a set of iron shackles displayed on a table.
She said her seven-year-old daughter reacted to the exhibit with one sentence: “This is a very bad thing.”
Another family member, Carol Adams-Sally, of Waterloo, N.Y., said, “It was good having the children find out where they come from.” She said that when younger family members looked at the drawings showing Northup in chains and being beaten, “They couldn't understand how people could be that cruel.”
More memories of Northup
When the spring issue of Union College arrived, I scanned the contents listing on the cover. “Recapturing Lost History” immediately piqued my interest, so I opened the magazine to that story.
What a pleasant surprise. Not more than ten days earlier, I had briefly discussed Solomon Northup's story with my daughter, Afia, a sixteen-year-old tenth grader.
My introduction to Solomon Northup occurred about 1984 or 1985 when I attended a screening of the film Solomon Northup's Journey by the world-renowned photographer Gordon Parks. The screening was part of a black film festival and was immediately followed by a question and answer period between the audience and Mr. Parks.
If memory serves, he said it cost $3 million, a paltry sum by Hollywood standards even fifteen years ago. Nevertheless, Mr. Parks was able to boldly dramatize Mr. Northup's story while simultaneously demonstrating his considerable and exquisite artistic/photographic talents. It truly is a pity that the film has not received much more extensive exposure over the years. Since it was mentioned in the Union College article, I thought, perhaps, you and your associates were unaware of it, and, if so, would be interested in learning of its existence.
Because Mr. Northup's story is part and parcel of the African experience in America — a saga that has yet to be made sufficiently known to the world — any endeavor that seeks to inform the public of his experience is to be heartily applauded. In the interest of broadening the exhibit's exposure to the public, are there any plans for its circulation around the country? I would think that numerous institutions — especially the smaller American-African community museums that dot the landscape — would have an interest in it. A tour of the exhibit would enable even more people to become aware of the vitally important story that Solomon Northup has shared with us.
Kofi Michel Guy Williams Opantiri '71
Hawthorne, Calif.
The Solomon Northup exhibit will be at the Visitor's Center in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., next February and at the Chapman Historical Museum in Glens Falls, N.Y., from March through May. It is tentatively scheduled to go to Louisiana in the fall of 2000. Its availability is being promoted in such listings as the National Collections Exchange Newsletter. — Editor