This Large Print Edition is cleanly formatted for easy reading. 16 point, spacing 1.25. (1853) Twelve Years a Slave is the memoir of Solomon Northup, a free black man enslaved for twelve years. It provides the details of Northup’s kidnapping in Washington, D.C. and his sale into slavery. During his bondage in Louisiana, by various slavemasters, Northup wrote to friends and family who eventually managed to have him released.