Edwin Epps House is a Creole cottage built in in part by

Solomon Northup Solomon Northup (July 10, — ) was an American abolitionist and the primary author of the memoir '' Twelve Years a Slave''. A free-born American of mixed race from New York, he was the son of a freed slave and a free woman of color. Northup ...

Bayou Boeuf Kraemer is a census-designated place (CDP) in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, United States. As of the 2010 census, its population was 934. Its ZIP code is 70371. It is also known as Bayou Boeuf. Demographics Education Lafourche Parish Public ...

near Holmesville in

Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana Avoyelles () is a parish located in central eastern Louisiana on the Red River where it effectively becomes the Atchafalaya River and meets the Mississippi River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 39,693. The parish seat is Marksvi ...

. It was built for Edwin Epps, a slaveholder. The house was a "double-sided, wood frame house with one chimney, and a tin roof" of mid-sized farmers. The Edwin Epps Plantation Site, where the house originally stood, is located off of LA 1176 on Carl Hunt Road. It is one of the historic sites of Solomon Northup's enslavement on the Northup Trail.

Solomon Northup

The house figures in the life of

who built the house and where Epps is reported to have learned that Northup, who he had owned for ten years, was a free man. A team, including

Sue Eakin Sue Eakin (1918–2009) was an American history professor at Louisiana State University of Alexandria. She received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship and was made a Fellow of American Association of University Women. Eakin resear ...

, a history professor at

Louisiana State University-Alexandria Louisiana State University of Alexandria (LSU of Alexandria or LSUA, formerly Louisiana State University at Alexandria) is a public college in Alexandria, Louisiana. It offers undergraduate degrees in numerous disciplines. The university is a uni ...

, researched Northup's book ''Twelve Years A Slave'' for accuracy and published a new version of the book in the 1960s. As part of the research, she found the house that Northup built, the Edwin Epps House. Over 150 years, the storms and time had decayed the original house.

Relocation

The house was relocated twice. In 1976, it was moved to nearby Bunkie. It was on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

from April 12, 1984, because it was important to the "history in the areas of literature and social/humanitarian because of its close association with the famous slave narrative ''Twelve Years a Slave.'' In 1999, the house was dismantled, during which some original building materials were replaced, and reconstructed on the

Louisiana State University of Alexandria Louisiana State University of Alexandria (LSU of Alexandria or LSUA, formerly Louisiana State University at Alexandria) is a public college in Alexandria, Louisiana. It offers undergraduate degrees in numerous disciplines. The university is a uni ...

. It was purchased for their Center for Studies of Life on Plantations. The relocation, among modern buildings, "destroys the integrity of location and setting, and can create a false sense of historic development." It was delisted from the National Register of Historic Places in 2017. The house was moved to the university to be used as a museum to help tell the story of plantation life, including the inhumanity and lack of freedom of the enslaved people. There is a room in the house that is dedicated to telling Northup's story. Other rooms tell of life on a plantation. A historical marker erected near the site reads:

References

{{Authority control Plantation houses in Louisiana Louisiana State University buildings and structures Houses completed in 1852 Former National Register of Historic Places in Louisiana 1852 establishments in Louisiana