Editing Solomon Northup (section)

===Restoration of freedom===
Bass wrote several letters to people Northup knew in Saratoga Springs: one went to his former employer Judge [[James M. Marvin]]<ref name="PS - freedom" /> and another reached Cephas Parker and William Perry, storekeepers in Saratoga. Parker and Perry forwarded the letter to Northup's wife, Anne, who contacted attorney Henry B. Northup, the son of Solomon's father's former master. Henry B. Northup contacted New York Governor [[Washington Hunt]], who took up the case, appointing the [[Attorney General of New York|attorney general]] as his legal agent. In 1840, the [[63rd New York State Legislature|New York State Legislature]] had passed a law committing the state to help any African American residents kidnapped into slavery, as well as guaranteeing a jury trial to alleged fugitive slaves. Once Northup's family was notified, his rescuers still had to do detective work to find the enslaved man, as he had partially tried to hide his location for protection in case the letters fell into the wrong hands, and Bass had not used his real name. They had to find documentation of his free status as a citizen and New York resident; Henry B. Northup also collected sworn affidavits from people who knew Solomon Northup. Northup did not know if Bass had reached anyone with the letters during this time. There was no means of communicating because of the secrecy they needed to maintain and the necessity of preventing Northup's owner from knowing their plans.<ref name= Oxford/><ref name="Worley"/> Bass did not reveal his own name in the letter.{{sfn|Northup|Wilson|1853|p=298}}{{efn|Unbeknownst to his friends in Louisiana, Bass had left a wife and children in Canada.<ref name=GlobeAndMail01a/> He also lived with a free woman of color in Louisiana.<ref name=GlobeAndMail01a/>}}

Henry gathered documentation and depositions and stopped off in Washington, D.C. to meet with [[Pierre Soule]], a legislator from Louisiana, and the Secretary of War in preparation for his rescue effort in Louisiana.<ref name="PS - freedom" /> Although he did not have Bass's name, Henry still managed to find him in Marksville (the postmark on the letters), and Bass revealed that Edwin Epps held Solomon Northup on his plantation. Henry prepared legal paperwork based on the documentation proving Northup was free.{{sfn|Northup|Wilson|1853|p=298}}<ref name="PS - freedom" /> The sheriff went with Henry to give the news to Epps and take Northup off the farm.{{sfn|Northup|Wilson|1853|pp=299–307}}

Northup later wrote, "He [Epps] thought of nothing but his loss, and cursed me for having been born free."<ref name= Oxford/>{{sfn|Northup|Wilson|1853|pp=184}} Attorney Henry B. Northup convinced Epps that it would be futile to contest the free papers in a court of law, so the planter conceded the case. He signed papers giving up all claims to Northup. Finally, on January 4, 1853, four months after meeting Bass, Northup regained his freedom.{{sfn|Nelson|2002|p=291}}{{sfn|Northup|Wilson|1853|pp=73–74, 270–273, 275, 292, 297–298}}