How long does it take to read Twelve Years a Slave?
Solomon Northup
Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup takes about 4 hours 17 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 4 hours 17 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1853. 234 pages, about 64,350 words.
9 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 7 hours 9 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 4 hours 17 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 2 hours 41 minutes |
The page count is the median across 1,029 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
Twelve Years a Slave is a harrowing memoir about one of the darkest periods in American history. It recounts how Solomon Northup, born a free man in New York, was lured to Washington, D.C., in 1841 with the promise of fast money, then drugged and beaten and sold into slavery. He spent the next twelve years of his life in captivity on a Louisiana cotton plantation.
Subjects: Slavery, Plantation life, History, Biography, African Americans, Slaves
