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330 TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE.

Solomon always resided in said county of Washington and the adjoining counties until about the year 1841; that said Solomon could read and write; that said Solomon and his mother and father were free citizens of the State of New-York; that sometime about the year 1841 this deponent received a letter from said Solomon, post-marked New-Orleans, stating that while on business at Washington city, he has been kidnapped, and his free papers taken from him, and he was then on board a vessel, in irons, and was claimed as a slave, and that he did not know his destination, which the deponent believes to be true, and he urged this deponent to assist in procuring his restoration to freedom; that deponent has lost of mislaid said letter, and cannot find it; that deponent has since endeavored to find where said Solomon was, but could get no farther trace of him until Sept. last, when this deponent ascertained by a letter purporting to have been written by the direction of said Solomon, that said Solomon was held and claimed as a slave in or near Marksville, in the parish of Avoyelles, Louisiana, and that this deponent verily believes such information is true, and that said Solomon is now wrongfully held in slavery at Marksville aforesaid. (Signed,) HENRY B. NORTHUP.

Subscribed and sworn before me this 20th day of November, 1852,
CHARLES HUGHES, J.P.

STATE OF NEW-YORK:
Washington County, ss
Nicholas C. Northup, of the village of Sandy Hill, in said county, being duly sworn, doh depose and say, that he is now fifty-eight years of age, and has known Solomon Northup, ever since he was born. And this deponent saith that said Solomon is now forty-five years old, and was born in the county of Wash-