Solomon Northup is in the news, again. His father was owned by a Northup family, and was freed before Solomon was born. The father took the Northup name when he was freed. The person who actually went to Louisiana to rescue Solomon from slavery was Henry B. Northup, a grandson of the owner of Solomon's father, and a lawyer and member of the New York Legislature from Fort Edward, a town on the Hudson, in Washington County, New York. Henry was also one of my great-great-great grandfathers. In the movie, the producers had someone else show up for the rescue. In the spring of 1841, Solomon's job at the United States Hotel at Saratoga Springs came to an end. He fell in with two men who promised him work. They took him south to Washington and sold him into slavery. He was transported by ship to New Orleans. While on board the ship, Solomon befriended a sailor and gave the sailor a letter to mail to Henry Northup about Solomon's circumstances. Unfortunately, Solomon did not know where he was and where he was going. Henry consulted with his friend, Governor Seward (the man who was supposed to be the Republican nominee in 1860 instead of Lincoln and who bought Alaska for the US) and they determined to act as soon as they could a good idea where to start looking. Twelve years passed, and a letter arrived in 1852. Solomon had been sold to Edwin Epps, in Lousiana. The letter was dated 15 August 1852 and identified Bayou Boeuf as the plantation location and the post office was Marksville. Henry left home on December 14 to go look for Solomon. First he went to Washington to get letters of introduction and admonition to help Henry on his journey. He arrived at Marksville and engaged a local attorney's assistance.On January 3, 1853, Henry showed up unannounced at Epps's plantation with the local sheriff to claim Solomon. After an interrogation of Solomon out of Henry's presence, he was allowed to see Henry and immediately recognized him and cried out his name without having been prompted or hearing Henry speak, according to Solomon. They confronted the owner who swore that he would have killed Solomon or sent him deep into the bayou if he had known Henry and the sheriff were coming. He had no intention of letting his property go. Some of this information is from Solomon's book and some from the website entries about Solomon. Additional information is taken from a letter written by a contemporary of Henry to a family member and published in a family history book. Stafford Hazelett