Edwin Epps

Epps was the third and longest enslaver of Solomon Northup, who was kidnapped in Washington, D.C., in 1841 and forced into slavery.

When Archy P. Williams, the plantation's owner, could not pay Epps, he transferred eight enslaved people and some money for lost wages.

At that time, frontier land opened up through the Louisiana Purchase, where Epps and other planters made money growing cotton.

Epps had a violent temper and was an alcoholic,[1] who went on two-week long "sprees" in which he might enjoy dancing with or whipping his servants.

[6] Northup and a Canadian carpenter Samuel Bass worked together on the modest plantation, Edwin Epps House.

Patsey, who left the farm to get a small bar of soap from a neighboring plantation, was beaten brutally.

She had to work harder than anyone else in his cotton fields by day, permit his sexual satisfaction at night, and yield to his barbaric whippings upon his, or his wife's, whims.