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 201
Bass argues that slavery is unjust and that ignorance is imposed on enslaved people; Epps rejects him with racist comparisons.
- Scene 202
Working alone with Bass after several days, Solomon tests his trust by asking where he is from and begins recounting how he was enslaved.
- Scene 203
Solomon tells Bass he has been enslaved for nearly eleven years and asks him to contact his northern friends; Bass agrees to help but warns of the danger and need for secrecy.
- Scene 204
This scene
