Solomon Northup was an African American abolitionist, farmer, and professional violinist. He was a free man before he was kidnapped and forced into slavery for twelve years. He is the primary author of Twelve Years a Slave, which details the horrific miscarriages of justice and oppression that he endured. After regaining his freedom and reuniting with his family, Northup became a well-respected activist and lecturer in the abolitionist movement. In the summer of 1857, after a series of lectures in Canada, he disappeared. Neither his cause of death nor his whereabouts have ever been uncovered.