Solomon Northrup comes to life
Clifford Oliver Mealy, a history re-enactor, will portray Solomon Northrup of Washington County, New York, a free man in the 1840s, who was sold into slavery. The program, at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 7, at the Wyman Osterhout community Center in New Salem, is free and open to the public.
NEW SCOTLAND — The life and times of Solomon Northup will be re-enacted by Clifford Oliver Mealy at the New Scotland Historical Association program on Tuesday, Oct. 7, at 7:30 p.m. The program is held at the Wyman Osterhout Community Center, just off of Route 85 in New Salem.
Mealy will give a brief history of slavery and how slavery came to haunt the world and life of Solomon Northup, a New York Yankee. A free black man in the 1840s, Solomon Northup was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the South. A movie was recently made, based on Northrup’s autobiographical account, Twelve Years A Slave, which you may have seen or read.
Mealy lives in Greenwich, New York and was educated at Dutchess Community College with an associate of arts degree in communications and media. He is a retired photographer from New York State Bureau of Historic Sites. He likes hiking, canoeing, birding, photography and history.
The program is free and open to the public. For more information, please call 765-4212. The historical society’s museum is open at 7 p.m. and features 100 years of Thacher Park.
Editor’s note: Ethie Moak is the publicist for the New Scotland Historical Association