Newspaper report in 1853 got author Solomon Northup’s surname wrong twice, misspelling it as Northrop and Northrup.
The New York Times has printed a correction for misspelling 161 years ago the name of a black man who was sold into slavery and whose memoirs were turned into the Oscar-winning movie 12 Years a Slave.In a 20 January 1853 article the paper printed Solomon Northup’s surname as Northrop and as Northrup.
It corrected Northup’s name on Tuesday after the errors were pointed out by someone looking at its archives.
The correction said the article about Northup had “misspelled his surname as Northrop. And the headline misspelled it as Northrup.
Northup, born in New York, was kidnapped and sold as a slave in 1841. He spent the next dozen years in Louisiana before regaining his freedom.
12 Years a Slave won the Oscar for best picture at the Oscars on Sunday. It starred Chiwetel Ejiofor as Northup and Lupita Nyong’o as Patsey, another slave. Nyong’o won the Oscar for best actress in a supporting role.
The Guardian