Alexandria's Little-Known Connection to '12 Years A Slave'

The story of a free black man kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841 has a little-known tie to Alexandria, according to a new story from the Associated Press.

The rowhouse located at 1315 Duke St. was once part of a slave trade complex that grew to be among the largest in the United States.

The last trader to operate on the site, James H. Birch, was the same dealer who paid men to kidnap Solomon Northup and then sold him into slavery in the Deep South.

Northup’s 1853 memoir was recently adapted into a historical film called 12 Years A Slave, now in theaters.

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The Northern Virginia Urban League purchased the Duke Street building—named the Franklin and Armfield Office after the two men who initially oversaw the slave trade operation at the site—in 1996 to serve as its headquarters.

The building had previously been named a National Historic Landmark in 1978. A marker outside the house reads:

“Isaac Franklin and John Armfield leased this brick building with access to the wharves and docks in 1828 as a holding pen for enslaved people being shipped from Northern Virginia to Louisiana. They purchased the building and three lots in 1832. From this location, Armfield bought bondspeople at low prices and shipped them south to his partner Franklin, in Natchez, Mississippi, and New Orleans, Louisiana, to be sold at much higher prices. By the 1830s they often sold 1,000 people annually, operating as one of the largest slave-trading companies in the United States until 1836. Slave traders continuously owned the property until 1861.”

Five years ago, the Freedom House Museum was created in the building. It is dedicated to telling the story of the men, women and children sold into slavery.

Though there is no evidence Northup passed through the Franklin and Armfield Office, museum curators hope the film will spark new interest from visitors and bring more historians to the site.

The building is one of the last remaining structures in the country where slave trade actually took place.

"I think a lot of Alexandrians would be shocked to know their city was a major hub of the country's slave trade," Freedom House Curator Julian Kiganda told the AP. "It's a story that's not told often enough."

Exhibits in the building’s basement include artifacts found at the site, as well as the original bars and door of Franklin and Armfield’s slave jail.

The Alexandria Convention and Visitors Association is working with the Washington Informer on a February tour of Alexandria’s African-American heritage sites, including the Freedom House Museum.