Solomon Northup

(Newser) - Solomon Northup, the subject of 12 Years a Slave, was held in a slave jail in Shockoe Bottom, once one of the busiest slave-trading districts in the country ... and now the mayor of Richmond, Va., where the site is located, wants to turn it into a baseball stadium. Descendants of...

(Newser) - Solomon Northup led an incredible life that inspired an Oscar-winning film, 12 Years a Slave—that much we know. But how Northup died remains a mystery that historians are still trying to solve, the AP reports. To recap, Northup was living with his family in upstate New York when two...

(Newser) - The New York Times followed the Best Picture win for 12 Years a Slave by tweeting a link to an 1853 article on Solomon Northup, the film's historical subject. The original article's lead describes what is to follow as "a more complete and authentic record than has...