Solomon Northup
Born in July 1808 in Minerva, New York, Solomon Northup grew up a free man, working as a farmer and violinist while having a family. He was lured south and kidnapped in 1841 and enslaved for more than a decade, enduring horribly violent conditions. Northup was freed in 1853 with help from colleagues and friends. His experiences are the subject of the book he famously wrote called 12 Years a Slave.
Source: http://www.biography.com/people/solomon-northup-21333433#background
The sensational story blared from the front page of the January 20, 1853, edition of the New York Times. Shocked New Yorkers read the incredible tale of Solomon Northup, a free black man who had been lured from upstate Saratoga Springs to the slave territory of Washington, D.C. by a pair of white men who promised him employment as a fiddler in a traveling circus. There, the two men drugged the married father of three, who awoke to find himself bound in chains inside a dark underground cell of the Williams Slave Pen. From there, he was transported to Louisiana, where he toiled for a dozen years as a slave on cotton and sugar plantations before proof of his status as a freeman resulted in his emancipation.
Source: http://www.history.com/news/solomon-northup-after-his-12-years-a-slave
Additional Resources:
http://opac.libraryworld.com/opac/catalog_edit.php?catalog_id=1570&from_doc=standard.php&position=1
http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/northup/summary.html
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/t/twelve-years-a-slave/book-summary