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 192
While Solomon picks cotton, Epps watches him beside Armsby; the two men’s prolonged conversation makes Solomon uneasy.
- Scene 193
Epps enters the sleeping quarters with his whip and silently orders Solomon to follow him outside.
- Scene 194
Epps confronts Solomon about the letter after Armsby betrays him; Solomon denies it and persuades Epps that Armsby invented the story to get an overseer job.
- Scene 195
This scene
