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.
- Scenes 124–199
Under Epps, Solomon works and watches for a route home; Armsby betrays his letter attempt, and Patsey’s punishment leaves him without a safe path out.
- Just before
- Scene 197
Patsey returns with soap from Shaw’s and explains why she went; Epps orders Solomon to whip her, forces him to comply, then continues the beating himself until she is nearly flayed.
- Scene 198
Phebe tends Patsey’s wounds with melted tallow as the other slaves try to comfort her; Patsey opens her eyes to look silently at Solomon.
- Scene 199
A delivery crew unloads lumber outside Epps’s Great House.
- Scene 200
This scene
