Solomon Northup Day has been set for Saturday, July 20, 2019 at the Willsboro School, 29 School Lane, Willsboro, from 4 to 5:30 pm.

Solomon Northup was a free black man living in Saratoga Springs, New York, who was lured from home in 1841, abducted and sold into slavery in the South. After years as a slave, he was rescued and authored the book Twelve Years a Slave. The book was the basis for the Oscar-winning film, 12 Years a Slave.

Speakers for the event include Renee Moore, founder of Solomon Northup Day; Mary Liz and Paul Stewart, founders of the Underground History Project of the Capital Region; and David Fiske, a recognized expert on Northup. Fiske will tell the story of Eli Terry, whose experience was remarkably similar to Northup’s. Terry could be considered “Indiana’s Solomon Northup,” and his story is among those related in Fiske’s book, Solomon Northup’s Kindred: The Kidnapping of Free Citizens before the Civil War.

The event is sponsored by the North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association (which maintains The North Star Underground Railroad Museum at Ausable Chasm), and is made possible through grant funding of the Essex County Arts Council’s Cultural Assistance Program.

The program is free and open to the public.

For more information, contact North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association at (518) 834-5180, ugr@frontier.com, or on their website.

Illustration: Solomon Northup in a Sketch from Twelve Years a Slave.