when he awoke to find himself in chains, but when he informed his new "owner" that he was in fact a free man. The owner, a slave-dealer named Burch, was incensed rather than concerned. When Northup refused to recant, Burch beat him with a large wooden paddle bored with holes, stopping only to inquire if Northup still insisted he was a free man. Northup did still insist, and was beaten again with the paddle; when that broke under the force of Burch's blows, the slave-owner whipped him with a cat-o'-ninetails until Northup remained silent to the repeated question of his free status. From that time on Northup knew that he was in the maw of an institution which denied him every right, and used every strategy available to him. On arriving in New Orleans he discovered that even his name was not his own: he was listed as "Platt" on the bill of lading, and Platt he was thenceforth called.Recognizing the danger to himself in asserting his rights as a free man (Burch had explicitly threatened to kill him if he continued to do so) he never again told a slave owner that he was free. He sought instead the help of two white men he encountered who spoke out against slavery, and of a sometime overseer named Armsby who was so poor as to be reduced to laboring with slaves, reasoning that his position would make the man somewhat sympathetic. Northup's owner, a man named Epps, aware that Northup could read and write, had threatened him with a hundred lashes if he were caught with pen and ink. After nine years of slavery, "always watchful and alert," Northup had finally managed to steal a sheet of paper, concocted a formula for ink after much trial and error, and wrote a letter to an acquaintance in New York. He had had the letter hidden for some time when he first encountered and cultivated Armsby. The post office would not mail a letter for a slave without written instructions from his owner; all Northup asked of Armsby, not divulging its ...
