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 139
Solomon finds Patsey taking tea with Harriet Shaw; Harriet explains how she survives Shaw’s affairs and sympathizes with Patsey’s exposure to Epps’s lust and violence.
- Scene 140
Epps chases Solomon, who runs from him; Solomon later recounts the episode to Mistress Epps.
- Scene 141
Henry collapses in the field from the heat; Edward throws water on him instead of letting him drink, and Henry is sent back to work.
- Scene 142
This scene
