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.
- Scene 30
Solomon is drugged and abducted in New York, abruptly ending his free life and beginning his captivity.
- Just before
- Scene 31
Solomon wakes chained in a dark cell, struggles against his restraints until exhausted, then collapses.
- Scene 32
Burch rejects Solomon’s claim to freedom and beats and whips him until he is bloodied; Radburn warns that resistance will bring worse, but Solomon keeps calling for help.
- Scene 33
The view pulls from Solomon’s barred cell across Washington’s government buildings, contrasting his captivity with the nation’s symbols of freedom.
- Scene 34
This scene
