Boston Welcomes the First-Ever Bronze Sculpture of Solomon Northup, Author of Twelve Years a Slave

 Boston Welcomes the First-Ever Bronze Sculpture of Solomon Northup, Author of Twelve Years a Slave

Exhibition of Hope Out of Darkness Runs October 20 – December 10 at the Boston Harbor Islands Welcome Center

BOSTON, MA — The first-ever bronze sculpture honoring Solomon Northup (1807–unknown)—the 19th-century abolitionist, freedom fighter, and author of Twelve Years a Slave—will arrive in Boston for public exhibition from October 20 through December 10, 2025.

 

An unveiling event is scheduled on the Rose Kennedy Greenway near the Boston Harbor Islands Welcome Pavilion (191W Atlantic Ave. Boston, MA 02110) on October 22, 2025 at 10am. A second welcome event with a book talk and screening is scheduled at the Loring Greenough House (12 South St, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130) on October 26, 2025 at 6:30pm.

 

The sculpture, titled Hope Out of Darkness, is a temporary installation on view at the Boston Harbor Islands Welcome Center on Atlantic Avenue. Created by Wesley Wofford, FNSS, of North Carolina, the work was commissioned by the Solomon Northup Committee for Commemorative Works, an organization dedicated to advancing public art, historical recognition, and educational initiatives that honor Solomon Northup’s enduring legacy.

 

Presented in partnership with the North American Indian Center of Boston (NAICOB) and the Greenway Conservancy, the exhibition brings this monumental bronze work to Boston’s waterfront, inviting residents and visitors to reflect on history, resilience, and the enduring pursuit of justice.

 

Solomon Northup, born free in New York in 1807, was kidnapped and enslaved for twelve years before regaining his freedom in 1853. His autobiography, Twelve Years a Slave, remains a foundational American narrative of resilience and truth-telling, chronicling one of the most powerful firsthand accounts of slavery in U.S. history.

 

Hope Out of Darkness portrays Northup in a moment of emergence—rising from shadow into light—a visual embodiment of survival, truth, and liberation. The sculpture stands as both a work of contemporary art and a vessel of historical remembrance, connecting Northup’s 19th-century struggle for freedom to ongoing conversations about justice and equality in America.

 

Following the publication of Twelve Years a Slave in 1853, Solomon Northup visited Boston and numerous cities throughout Massachusetts between 1854 and 1856, where he became a powerful voice in the antislavery movement. He delivered lectures across the Commonwealth and even appeared before the Massachusetts State Legislature in March of 1855, led by Senator Charles Sumner, where he stood alongside Anthony Burns, the formerly enslaved man whose case had electrified the nation, and Ida May (born Mary Mildred Botts), a young girl publicly displayed for her white-passing appearance as part of the abolitionist campaign to expose the brutality and hypocrisy of slavery. During this period, Northup also performed in his self-written stage production, The Free Slave, dramatizing his ordeal and freedom. These appearances placed Northup among a circle of reformers who shaped the moral conscience of 19th-century Massachusetts.

 

The sculpture has traveled on a five-city limited engagement tour across the United States, sharing Northup’s story through art and dialogue in communities connected to abolition, freedom, and remembrance. Following its Boston exhibition, Hope Out of Darkness will be permanently installed in Marksville, Louisiana—the city where Solomon Northup was freed in 1853. There, the sculpture will stand at the heart of a custom-designed plaza incorporating symbolic elements and artistic features that reflect Northup’s harrowing journey from enslavement to freedom. The plaza will be located before the Avoyelles Parish Courthouse, the historic site that marks his return to liberty.

 

“This moment brings Solomon Northup’s story into a living dialogue with Boston’s abolitionist past and its civic conscience today,” said Melissa Howell of the Solomon Northup Committee for Commemorative Works & great-great-great granddaughter of Northup. “Our hope is that this sculpture will move hearts, inspire reflection, and strengthen our collective commitment to truth and remembrance.”

 

“The story of Solomon Northup has indelibly etched a national trail of dispossession and self-liberation. A Boston stop allows us to acknowledge an important epilogue to Twelve Years A Slave. In this year of commemorations, we must recognize that the fight for freedom extends beyond the American Revolution. As Indigenous peoples, this is about shared histories and kinship.” Jean-Luc Pierite is the president of the North American Indian Center of Boston and a lecturer at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning.

 

"The Greenway is honored to host Hope Out of Darkness, which commemorates Solomon Northup, his connections to Boston, and contributes to restorative histories across our city's public spaces." Audrey N. Lopez, PhD is Director & Curator of Public Art for the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy.

 

“This work of art speaks on one level to the salience of storytelling through powerful representation in our public spaces that allow us to transcend our parochial and prejudicial dispositions and point us toward hope and community. The sculpture of Northrop is also sure to invoke the spiritual qualities of persistence in midst of trouble and signal the fact that resilience is a human virtue.” Rev. Kevin Peterson is Founder and Director of the New Democracy Coalition and the Boston People’s Reparations Commission.

 

Throughout the exhibition period, community partners will host a series of programs, including artist conversations, educational workshops, and family events exploring Northup’s legacy and the role of art in shaping public memory.