After being kidnapped from New York and sold into slavery, Solomon Northup uses his skills and carefully placed trust to survive and seek a way back to his family.
- Scenes 1–29
Solomon lives freely in Saratoga as a husband, father, worker, and musician.
- Scenes 30–65
Kidnapped and held under the imposed name Platt, Solomon must preserve his life and identity.
- Scenes 66–123
He enters plantation life under Ford, passes through Tibeats’s violence and the near-lynching, and is transferred to Epps.
- Scene 124
Solomon is transferred to Epps’s plantation and placed among Patsey and the enslaved workers, opening the harsher final plantation phase.
- Just before
- Scene 126
In the August cotton fields, Solomon struggles to pick while Patsey works with exceptional speed; Treach and Edward drive the workers without water or rest.
- Scene 127
Epps weighs the cotton and mocks Solomon’s low quota while praising Patsey’s record yield; Phebe and Abram are also pulled from line for falling short.
- Scene 128
Epps strips and perfunctorily whips Solomon, Phebe, and Abram for their cotton totals.
- Scene 129
This scene
