Samuel Bass (abolitionist)

Samuel Bass (1807–1853) was a white Canadian abolitionist who helped Solomon Northup, author of Twelve Years a Slave, attain his freedom.

Northup was a free black man from New York who was kidnapped and forced into slavery in the Deep South.

At risk of injury and conviction in default of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, Bass mailed letters to friends of Northup that initiated a series of events to save him.

His grandparents, Adonijah and Lydia Draper Bass, were United Empire Loyalists who lived in Walloomsac, New York, during the American Revolutionary War.

[1] The town was located in Avoyelles Parish, which was "a region steeped in French-colonial history and surrounded by sweeping farmland, meandering bayous and moss-hanging shade trees."

Northup provided the names of three individuals in Saratoga Springs, New York—Judge Marvin, Cephus Parker, and William Perry—who could vouch for his free status.

[2][6] Bass had decided on a backup plan to travel to Saratoga and deliver the message personally if needed.

[2] Two of the letters were sent to Cephas Parker and William Perry from Saratoga, New York, who notified Northup's wife of her husband's whereabouts.

[1][6] Henry carried the letter with him as he traveled to Louisiana to meet with Waddill, who then wrote in an affidavit that Northup was "violently and fraudulently kidnapped."

Bass prepared a will with Waddill the night before he died of pneumonia on August 30, 1853[1][8] at the home of Justine Tournier.