David Fiske

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David Fiske (born 1954) is an author, local historian, and a retired librarian residing in Ballston Spa, New York. He has written several books related to Solomon Northup. [1] [2]

Contents

Early life and education

Born in Bangor, Maine in 1954, [3] Fiske grew up in Connecticut. He received his bachelor's degree from Cornell University. He studied library science at the University at Albany, SUNY, where he received his master's degree. [4]

Author

He has authored books about a free black man who was kidnapped and enslaved during the antebellum period. He was a co-author of Solomon Northup: The Complete Story of the Author of Twelve Years a Slave with Rachel Seligman, a Skidmore College curator and Clifford Brown, a Union College professor. [4] and he authored Solomon Northup: His Life Before and After Slavery [1]

He wrote another book about more people who were kidnapped and sold into slavery entitled Solomon Northup's Kindred: The Kidnapping of Free Citizens before the Civil War. [1] The book also explains the kidnapping phenomenon of the antebellum U. S.

A key question about Northup is what happened to him after a scheduled lecture in 1857 in Streetsville, Mississauga in Ontario. [2] [5] There was a crowd of people who disrupted his talk and yelled obscenities at him. A local paper said at the time that it was a "Most Dastardly Outrage". Northup locked himself in a room. Fiske's research has led him to a couple of theories. One, for which there is evidence in the form of letters, is that Northup became an Underground Railroad operator, helping people make it into Canada from Vermont. [2] He is said to have helped freedom seekers and worked on the Underground Railroad. Fiske said "given his tendency to boldness and reasoned solutions to problems, there may have been impressive accomplishments… that we simply do not know about." [2] [6]

With Eric Stanway, he wrote Madame Sherri: The Special Edition. He also authored Forgotten on the Kennebec: Abandoned Places and Quirky People. [4] He also lectures on various historical topics. [7]

Related Research Articles

The slave narrative is a type of literary genre involving the (written) autobiographical accounts of enslaved Africans, particularly in the Americas. Over six thousand such narratives are estimated to exist; about 150 narratives were published as separate books or pamphlets. In the United States during the Great Depression (1930s), more than 2,300 additional oral histories on life during slavery were collected by writers sponsored and published by the Works Progress Administration, a New Deal program. Most of the 26 audio-recorded interviews are held by the Library of Congress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solomon Northup</span> Free-born African American kidnapped by slave-traders

Solomon Northup 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. A farmer and a professional violinist, Northup had been a landowner in Washington County, New York. In 1841, he was offered a traveling musician's job and went to Washington, D.C. ; there he was drugged and kidnapped into slavery. He was shipped to New Orleans, purchased by a planter, and held as a slave for 12 years in the Red River region of Louisiana, mostly in Avoyelles Parish. He remained a slave until he met Samuel Bass, a Canadian working on his plantation who helped get word to New York, where state law provided aid to free New York citizens who had been kidnapped and sold into slavery. His family and friends enlisted the aid of the Governor of New York, Washington Hunt, and Northup regained his freedom on January 3, 1853.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Underground Railroad</span> Network for fugitive slaves in 19th-century U.S.

The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and from there to Canada. The network, primarily the work of free African Americans, was assisted by abolitionists and others sympathetic to the cause of the escapees. The slaves who risked capture and those who aided them are also collectively referred to as the passengers and conductors of the "Underground Railroad". Various other routes led to Mexico, where slavery had been abolished, and to islands in the Caribbean that were not part of the slave trade. An earlier escape route running south toward Florida, then a Spanish possession, existed from the late 17th century until approximately 1790. However, the network generally known as the Underground Railroad began in the late 18th century. It ran north and grew steadily until the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln. One estimate suggests that, by 1850, approximately 100,000 slaves had escaped to freedom via the network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fugitive Slave Act of 1793</span> Act of the United States Congress

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 was an Act of the United States Congress to give effect to the Fugitive Slave Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which was later superseded by the Thirteenth Amendment, and to also give effect to the Extradition Clause. The Constitution’s Fugitive Slave Clause guaranteed a right for a slaveholder to recover an escaped slave. The subsequent Act, "An Act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping from the service of their masters", created the legal mechanism by which that could be accomplished.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fugitive slaves in the United States</span> Aspect of history

In the United States, fugitive slaves or runaway slaves were terms used in the 18th and 19th centuries to describe people who fled slavery. The term also refers to the federal Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850. Such people are also called freedom seekers to avoid implying that the enslaved person had committed a crime and that the slaveholder was the injured party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Burris</span>

Samuel D. Burris was a member of the Underground Railroad. He had a family, who he moved to Philadelphia for safety and traveled into Maryland and Delaware to guide freedom seekers north along the Underground Railroad to Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kidnapping into slavery in the United States</span>

The pre-American Civil War practice of kidnapping into slavery in the United States occurred in both free and slave states, and both fugitive slaves and free negroes were transported to slave markets and sold, often multiple times. There were also rewards for the return of fugitives. Three types of kidnapping methods were employed: physical abduction, inveiglement of free blacks, and apprehension of fugitives. The enslavement, or re-enslavement, of free blacks occurred for 85 years, from 1780 to 1865.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Ruggles</span> American abolitionist

David Ruggles was an African-American abolitionist in New York who resisted slavery by his participation in a Committee of Vigilance and the Underground Railroad to help fugitive slaves reach free states. He was a printer in New York City during the 1830s, who also wrote numerous articles, and "was the prototype for black activist journalists of his time." He claimed to have led more than 600 fugitive slaves to freedom in the North, including Frederick Douglass, who became a friend and fellow activist. Ruggles opened the first African-American bookstore in 1834.

<i>Twelve Years a Slave</i> 1853 memoir by Solomon Northup

Twelve Years a Slave is an 1853 memoir and slave narrative by Solomon Northup as told to and written by David Wilson. Northup, a black man who was born free in New York state, details himself being tricked to go to Washington, D.C., where he was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the Deep South. He was in bondage for 12 years in Louisiana before he was able to secretly get information to friends and family in New York, who in turn secured his release with the aid of the state. Northup's account provides extensive details on the slave markets in Washington, D.C., and New Orleans, and describes at length cotton and sugar cultivation and slave treatment on major plantations in Louisiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Invisible churches</span>

Invisible churches among enslaved African Americans in the United States were informal Christian groups where enslaved people listened to preachers that they chose without their slaveholder's knowledge. The Invisible churches taught a different message from white-controlled churches and did not emphasize obedience to slave masters. Some slaves could not contact invisible churches and others did not agree with an invisible church's message but many slaves were comforted by the invisible churches.

<i>12 Years a Slave</i> (film) 2013 film directed by Steve McQueen

12 Years a Slave is a 2013 biographical drama film directed by Steve McQueen from a screenplay by John Ridley, based on the 1853 slave memoir Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, an African American man who was kidnapped in Washington, D.C. by two conmen in 1841 and sold into slavery. He was put to work on plantations in the state of Louisiana for 12 years before being released. The first scholarly edition of David Wilson's version of Northup's story was co-edited in 1968 by Sue Eakin and Joseph Logsdon.

<i>Solomon Northups Odyssey</i> 1984 American televsion film by Gordon Parks

Solomon Northup's Odyssey, reissued as Half Slave, Half Free, is a 1984 American television film based on the 1853 autobiography Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, a free black man who in 1841 was kidnapped and sold into slavery. The film, which aired on PBS, was directed by Gordon Parks with Avery Brooks starring as the titular character. It was the second film to be funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, following A House Divided: Denmark Vesey's Rebellion in 1982. Parks returned to direct the film after years of absence. He chose to work in the Deep South and to collaborate with a crew of mixed races. The film first aired on PBS on December 10, 1984 and as part of PBS's American Playhouse anthology television series in the following year. It was released on video under the title Half Slave, Half Free.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patsey</span> African-American enslaved woman, written about in 12 Years a Slave

Patsey was an African-American enslaved woman. Solomon Northup wrote about her in his book Twelve Years a Slave, which is the source for most of the information known about her. There have been two adaptations of the book in film, Solomon Northup's Odyssey in 1984 and the better known 12 Years a Slave, in 2013. In the latter Patsey was portrayed by Lupita Nyong'o, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.

David Wilson was an American lawyer, writer and politician from New York. He is best known for his role in publishing Twelve Years a Slave, as told to him by Solomon Northup, in 1853.

Edwin Epps was a slaveholder on a cotton plantation in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana. He was the third and longest enslaver of Solomon Northup, who was kidnapped in Washington, D.C. in 1841 and forced into slavery. On January 3, 1853, Northup left Epps's property and returned to his family in New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Underground Railroad in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania</span>

The Underground Railroad in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania was a critical hub of the American Underground Railroad network, which helped men, women and children to escape the system of chattel slavery that existed in the United States during the nineteenth century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francis Jackson (kidnapping victim)</span> Slave who worked in Virginia

Francis Jackson, also known as Frank Jackson, was an African-American victim of kidnapping into slavery. He was born free, but enticed into helping to drive horses to Virginia, a slave state, and was sold into slavery in early 1851. Besides escaping a number of times over seven years, there were three legal cases fought in Virginia and North Carolina. It seemed to be settled with the Francis Jackson vs. John W. Deshazer case when he was ruled to be free in 1855, but he was held as a slave until 1858. Jackson lived a continual cycle of being sold to new slaveholders, running away, getting caught, and then being returned to his latest owner.

Samuel Bass (1807–1853) was a white Canadian abolitionist who helped Solomon Northup, author of Twelve Years a Slave, attain his freedom. Northup was a free black man from New York who was kidnapped and forced into slavery in the Deep South. At risk of injury and conviction in default of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, Bass mailed letters to friends of Northup that initiated a series of events to save him.

Sue Eakin (1918–2009) was an American history professor at Louisiana State University of Alexandria. She received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship and was made a Fellow of American Association of University Women. Eakin researched the story of Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave, and published a version of the book that corrected historical inaccuracies.

Kentucky raid in Cass County (1847) was conducted by slaveholders and slave catchers who raided Underground Railroad stations in Cass County, Michigan to capture black people and return them to slavery. After unsuccessful attempts, and a lost court case, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was enacted. Michigan's Personal Liberty Act of 1855 was passed in the state legislature to prevent the capture of formerly enslaved people that would return them to slavery.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Museum to discuss slave trade in NY". The Post-Star. July 15, 2018. pp. D4. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Being Enslaved... Solomon Northup". National Post. May 25, 2019. pp. A13. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
  3. ↑ "Fiske, David (1954 - )". Maine Writers List, Maine State Library. Retrieved 2021-07-06.
  4. 1 2 3 Buell, Bill (May 4, 2014). "Fiske looks at how family lived while Northup a slave". The Daily Gazette. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
  5. ↑ "'12 Years a Slave' author's death still a mystery". The Akron Beacon Journal. 2014-03-22. pp. F003. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
  6. ↑ Watson, Denise. "After "12 Years a Slave," story leads to Norfolk". Pilot online. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
  7. ↑ "Performers and Programs: David Fiske". Summer Reading, New York Libraries (state). Retrieved 2021-07-05.
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