Page:My Bondage and My Freedom (1855).djvu/479

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TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE

The Narrative of Solomon Northup, a citizen of New York,
Kidnapped in Washington City, in 1841, and Rescued in 1853,
from a Cotton Plantation near Red River, Louisiana.
7 Illustrations, 336 pp. 12mo. Price $1,00.

VOICE OF THE PRESS.


The narrative will be read with interest by every one who can sympathize with a human being struggling for freedom.—Buff. Cour.

The volume cannot fail to gain a wide circulation. No one can contemplate the scenes which are here so naturally set forth, without a new conviction of the hideousness of the institution from which the subject of the narrative has happily escaped.—N. Y. Tribune.

We think the story as affecting as any tale of sorrow could be.—N. Y. Evangelist.

It proves conclusively that Uncle Tom's Cabin is a truthful history of American Slavery, though drawn under the veil of fiction.—Otsego Rep.

Next to Uncle Tom's Cabin, the extraordinary narrative of Solomon Northup, is the most remarkable book that was ever issued from the American press.—Detroit Trib.

This is a simple, earnest, moving narrative of the events, vicissitudes, cruelties and kindnesses of a bondage of 12 years. If there are those who can peruse it unmoved, we pity them. That it will create as great a sensation, and be regarded equally as interesting as “Uncle Tom's Cabin,” is not a question for argument.—Buffalo Express.

This is one of the most exciting narratives, full of thrilling incidents artlessly told, with all the marks of truth. There are no depicted scenes in “Uncle Tom” more tragic, horrible, and pathetic, than the incidents compassed in the twelve years of this man's life in slavery.—Cincinnati Jour.

He who with an unbiassed mind sits down to the perusal of this book, will arise perfectly satisfied that American slavery is a hell of torments yet untold, and feel like devoting the energies of his life to its extirpation from the face of God's beautiful earth.—Evening Chron.

The story is one of thrilling interest as a mere personal history. He is but a little darker than many who pass for white, and quite as intelligent as most white men.—N. C. Adv.

The book is one of most absorbing interest.—Pittsburgh Dispatch.

It is written in a racy, agreeable style, and narrates with admirable conciseness, yet animation tho story of the sufferings, woes and persecutions of the hero. It is no less remarkable for candor and unity of purpose than for literary ability.—Oneida Her.

It is one of the most effective books against slavery that was ever written. “Archy Moore” and “Uncle Tom” are discredited by many as “romances;” but how the apologists for the institution can dispose of North up we are curious to see.—Syracuse Jour.

It is well told and bears internal evidence of being a clear statement of facts. There is no attempt at display, but the events are so graphically portrayed, that the interest in the perusal is deep and unabated to the last. Some of the scenes have a fearful and exciting power in their delineation.—Cayuga Chief.

It is a strange history, its truth is far stranger than fiction. Think of it! For thirty years A MAN, with all a man's hopes, fears and aspirations with a wife and children to call him by the endearing names of husband and father with a home, humble it may be, but still a HOME, beneath the shelter of whose roof none had a right to molest or make him afraid then for twelve years A THING, a chattel personal, classed with mules and horses and treated with less consideration than they; torn from his home and family, and the free labor by which he earned their bread, and driven to unremitting, unrequited toil in a cotton field, under a burning southern sun, by the lash of an inhuman master. Oh! it is horrible. It chills the blood to think that such things are.—Fred. Douglass' Paper.

It comes before us with highly respectable vouchers, and is a plain and simple statement of what happened to the author while in bondage to southern masters. It is a well told story, full of interest, and may be said to be the reality of “life among the lowly.”—Buff. Com. Adv.

Let it be read by all those good easy souls, who think slavery is, on the whole a good thing. Let it be read by all who think that although slavery is politically and economically a bad thing, it is not very bad for the slaves. Let it be read by all those M. C.'s and supporters who are always ready to give their votes, in aid of slavery and the slave trade with all the kidnapping inseparable from it. Let it be read, too, by our southern friends, who pity with so much Christian sensibility, the wretched condition of the free negroes at the north, and rejoice at the enviable condition of their own slaves.—N. Y. Ind.

Published by MILLER, ORTON & MULLIGAN,
No. 25 Park Row, New York, and 107 Genesee-st., Auburn