Northup descendant launches petition drive

 

   Melissa Howell, a descendant of Solomon Northup, is seeking at least 100,000 signatures on an online petition asking President Barak Obama to bestow the Presidential Medal of Freedom on the author of the autobiographical Twelve Years a Slave.

   Northup was a free-born black man from New York who was kidnapped in Washington, D.C., in 1841 and sold into slavery in Louisiana. He spent most of his 12 years as a slave in Avoyelles Parish before being freed at the parish courthouse Jan. 3, 1853. He is believed to have died in 1863, but details of his death are not known.

   If successful, Northup would be the only recipient from the 1800s. All other recipients of the Medal of Freedom made their mark on society in the 20th and 21st Centuries.

  The medal was first established by President Harry Truman in 1945 to honor civilians who aided the war effort. President John F. Kennedy expanded its role in 1963. It is now awarded to a citizen “who has made an exceptionally meritorious contribution to the security or national interest of the U.S., to world peace or to cultural or other significant endeavors,” an online description states.

   Howell said the current motivation behind the move to honor her famous ancestor more than 160 years after his ordeal ended is the fact that slavery still exists around the globe.  She said more than 26 million men, women and children are slaves.

   “In today’s economy, the average value of a man, woman or child sold is $90,” she said. “The trading of exploited humans has intensified in volume, and so with it the crippling effects it has upon the enslaved -- physically, mentally, emotionally and economically.”

Howell said honoring Northup would be a way to “fight the war against this illegal dehumanization of humankind.”

    She said Northup used his experiences to “educate his community and the nation about the cruelties of slavery. He was not a self-described victim. He was driven to abolitionism and a passionate pursuit of ‘freedom for all.’”

     Howell lives in the Finger Lakes Region of New York --- about three hours east of Northup’s hometown of Glen Falls, N.Y. She said the online petition was started on the White House’s “We the People” website June 7. The petition drive is set to end July 7 with a goal of 100,000 signatures.

     To sign the petition, go to wh.gov/ikS45 .

    “We are off to a good start and are gaining momentum through social media,” Howell said.

   Howell is a fine arts/entertainment administrator but devotes a lot of her time to the Solomon Northup Legacy organization she has created. She was recently invited to participate in an online discussion group sponsored by the United Nations’ International Labor Organization on the issue of human trafficking and modern-day slavery.