Hi there! I came across one of your articles about "12 Years a Slave." I am planning a trip to New Orleans and Louisiana as a whole. I was wondering if you could tell me which plantations it was filmed on?  Also, (do) any of the original plantations that Solomon Northrop was enslaved on still stand?
-- T.S., Brampton, Ontario.
Hi, T.S. Let me be the first to offer an early "bienvenue" to Louisiana. You're not the first person interested in visiting sites associated with Solomon Northup, the free man of color who in 1841 was kidnapped in Washington, D.C., and sold into slavery in Louisiana's Rapides and Avoyelles parishes -- and whose memoirs have been turned into the forthcoming feature film "12 Years a Slave," directed by Steve McQueen and produced by Brad Pitt. In fact, a "Solomon Northup Trail" was established some years ago in Louisiana highlighting with historical markers many of the actual locations that figured into his tale.
Descriptions of those sites were collected into a booklet penned by historian and former LSU professor Sue Eakin, a woman who -- with University of New Orleans historian Joseph Logsdon -- is credited with bringing Northup's tale to the forefront in the 1960s, after it had been largely lost to the ages. Unfortunately, that booklet is now out of print and fairly hard to come by, although blogger Elizabeth J. Stoughton recently wrote some great posts highlighting a number of the places included in the booklet and including images of some of the pages included therein.
Be forewarned, however, that many of the places from Eakin's book may no longer be quite so easy to find. The Edwin Epps house, for example -- the Creole cottage owned by and named after one of the slave owners whose cruelties Northup endured (and played in McQueen's film by Michael Fassbender) -- has been relocated twice from its original site in rural Holmesville, La. First moved to nearby Bunkie in 1976, it was again relocated and reconstructed in 1999 -- thanks once more largely to the efforts of Eakin -- to the campus of the Louisiana State University at Alexandria, off U.S. 71 on Water Tower Ave. A historical marker erected near the site reads:
"Built in 1852 by Edwin Epps. Originally located near Holmesville on Bayou Boeuf about three miles away. From 1843 to 1853, Epps, a small planter, owned Solomon Northup, author of famous slave narrative Twelve Years A Slave."
It was in that house that Epps was reportedly informed that Northup -- a man he owned for 10 years -- was a free man and was to immediately be granted emancipation.
Although the house has been closed to visitors for some time, it is scheduled to re-open in October, hosting an exhibit that includes a room dedicated to Northup's story, as well as other rooms focusing on plantation life during the era, including various artifacts and folk art. According to a recent post on the LSUA website, it is set to open in mid to late October and will operate Thursdays to Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. There will be no charge for admission.
Interestingly, the movie wasn't shot there. Rather, it shot at four Louisiana plantations, according to the film's production notes, provided by distributor Fox Searchlight. Felicity Plantation in Vacherie, built in 1846, stands in for the Epps House for the film's purposes. The Magnolia Plantation in Schriever, built in 1858, stands in for the home of William Ford (played by Benedict Cumberbatch in McQueen's film), who originally purchased Northup at a slave auction in New Orleans.
Additionally, Bocage Plantation in Darrow, built in 1837, doubles for Shaw Farm. Finally, an outbuilding at the historic Destrehan plantation -- which, dating to 1787, is one of the oldest documented plantations in the region -- doubled as Epps' "gin house," where cotton bales were counted.
Other local shooting locations included the largely untamed Sarpy Swamp, which doubles for the path to Ford's lumber mill; the Columns Hotel on Canal Street, which doubles as the Gadsby Hotel in Washington, D.C., from which Northup was kidnapped; and Madam John's Legacy House in the French Quarter, which doubles as the slave pen where Northup was originally held before being sold.
And as if all that won't keep you busy enough on your visit, here's one last note: If your trip to New Orleans will see you in town in mid-October, you might want to try to score tickets to the opening night of the New Orleans Film Festival on Oct. 10. The opening-night film will be "12 Years a Slave" and McQueen is expected to be in attendance.
Thanks for the great question. As a thank-you, I'm sending you a DVD copy of "Letters From Jackie: The Private Thoughts of Jackie Robinson," a documentary about baseball's barrier-breaking icon, in his own words.
___________
Have a good question? Email it to me at mscott@nola.com. Be sure to include your full name and a mailing address so I can shower you with swag you should your question be chosen for publication.