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 130
The cabin workers cook their meal while Abram delivers a fervent speech celebrating General Jackson and praying that he rule them.
- Scene 131
A drunken Epps wakes the sleeping slaves and orders them to dance.
- Scene 132
The exhausted slaves dance for Epps; his wife throws a carafe at Patsey and demands she be sold, but Epps refuses and orders the dance to continue as Patsey is dragged out bleeding.
- Scene 133
This scene
