Читать книгу Twelve Years a Slave - Solomon Northup - Страница 13

Beyond 1863, no traces of Northup have surfaced in newspapers or official records. A listing of inhabitants of New York State in 1875 includes his wife, along with other family members – but not Northup. According to the record, his wife is widowed, so Northup seemingly was deceased by that year. (Earlier census records had shown the wife to be a married woman.)

What Northup may have been doing during the Civil War remains a mystery. It's possible that his money problems continued, and he perhaps wandered about seeking work, dying penniless in some unfamiliar place. Perhaps he pursued a different vocation. He wrote very positively about agriculture; possibly he took up farming. His autobiography does not give the impression that he was the retiring sort. Despite his stated hope, once he had achieved his freedom, “henceforward to lead an upright though lowly life,” it is hard to imagine this man of action quietly sitting at home in some Northern state, merely reading about the war in newspapers. Might he have gone south, seeking out his luckless slave friend Patsey? Might he have in some way provided assistance to the Union army (which had a presence in central Louisiana as early as 1862)? As a scout – or a spy – Northup could have provided valuable information. He knew the landscape, and he also knew how to play the part of a slave, so could have gathered information without being noticed.

Perhaps a packet of letters or old newspaper clippings will be found in an attic somewhere, and the Northup story can have its proper ending. But his ultimate fate – how, when, and where he died – may never be learned.