Solomon Northup - Court Cases

Court Cases

One of the few free blacks to regain freedom under such circumstances, Solomon Northup sued Burch and other men involved in selling him into slavery. (The historian Carol Wilson documented 300 such cases in her book, Freedom at Risk: The Kidnapping of Free Blacks in America, 1780-1865 (1994). She believes it is likely thousands more were kidnapped who were never documented.)

At the time, Northup did not make a claim against the men with the circus as they could not be found, and he initially doubted their complicity. His case was tried in Washington DC where, as a black man, Northup was prohibited by law from testifying against whites. One of the accused men in turn sued Northup, who had to defend himself in court. The charges were eventually dropped, and Northup remained free. The case received national attention, with the New York Times publishing an article on the trial on January 20, 1853.

That year Northup published a book about his kidnapping and years as a slave. Thaddeus St. John, a county court judge in Fonda, New York, recalled having seen two old friends, Alexander Merrill and Joseph Russell, traveling with a black man to Washington at the time of the late President Harrison's funeral. He saw them again while returning from Washington, no longer with the black man, and recalled an odd conversation with them. Contacting Henry B. Northup, St. John testified about the events and helped track down the two men. After Solomon Northup recognized them, Merrill and Russell were charged in his kidnapping. The respective courts argued over whether the crime had been committed in New York, where Northup's testimony would have been accepted, or in Washington DC, where it would not. After two years of appeals, a new district attorney in New York did not continue to push the case. Merrill and Russell were never tried; they went unpunished.