WRITER

Solomon Northup

1808 - 1863

Photo of Solomon Northup

Icon of person Solomon Northup

Solomon Northup (born July 10, c. 1807–1808; died c. 1864) was an American abolitionist and the primary author of the memoir Twelve Years a Slave. A free-born African American from New York, he was the son of a freed slave and a free woman of color. Northup was a professional violinist, farmer, and landowner in Washington County, New York. In 1841, he was offered a traveling musician's job and went to Washington, D.C. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Solomon Northup has received more than 4,822,473 page views. His biography is available in 26 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 23 in 2019). Solomon Northup is the 1,192nd most popular writer (down from 745th in 2019), the 1,400th most popular biography from United States (down from 873rd in 2019) and the 131st most popular American Writer.

Solomon Northup was a free black man living in New York in 1841. He was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Louisiana, where he remained for 12 years. He was freed in 1853 and published his memoir, Twelve Years a Slave, in 1853. The book became a bestseller and was adapted into a movie in 2013.

Memorability Metrics

  • 4.8M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 66.00

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 26

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 4.24

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.22

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Solomon Northup ranks 1,192 out of 7,302. Before him are Samuel Butler, Sophia Tolstaya, Laura Marx, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Marcus Manilius, and Emmanuelle Arsan. After him are Juan Rulfo, Elizabeth Gaskell, Radegund, Subramania Bharati, Max Nordau, and Pierre de Marivaux.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1808, Solomon Northup ranks 18. Before him are Thomas Cook, Johann Gustav Droysen, David Strauss, Maria Malibran, Mohammad Shah Qajar, and Carl Spitzweg. After him are Wilhelm Weitling, Princess Louise of Prussia, George Robert Gray, Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly, Princess Vilhelmine Marie of Denmark, and Princess Marie of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. Among people deceased in 1863, Solomon Northup ranks 9. Before him are Frederick VII of Denmark, William Makepeace Thackeray, Sa'id of Egypt, Alfred de Vigny, Horace Vernet, and Franz Xaver Gruber. After him are Jakob Steiner, Stonewall Jackson, Johann Karl Ehrenfried Kegel, Christian Friedrich Hebbel, Sam Houston, and Natalia Pushkina.

Others Born in 1808

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Others Deceased in 1863

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Solomon Northup ranks 1,400 out of 20,380. Before him are James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834), Dirk Benedict (1945), Don Cherry (1936), Josiah Warren (1798), Alfred G. Gilman (1941), and William Lipscomb (1919). After him are Jack Dempsey (1895), Robert A. Dahl (1915), Sarah Knauss (1880), Peter Weller (1947), Martha Nussbaum (1947), and G. Stanley Hall (1846).

Others born in United States

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Among WRITERS In United States

Among writers born in United States, Solomon Northup ranks 131. Before him are John Grisham (1955), John Updike (1932), Fredric Brown (1906), Anne Rice (1941), E. Howard Hunt (1918), and John Jacob Astor IV (1864). After him are Dan Simmons (1948), Ida Tarbell (1857), Martha Gellhorn (1908), Harry Harrison (1925), James Patterson (1947), and Irving Stone (1903).

American born Writers

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