# Elizabeth — Twelve Years a Slave character guide

> Elizabeth in Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Eliza

**First appearance:** 0008-v

## Snapshot

A fellow captive and cabin-mate whose tenderness toward Solomon sharpens the reader's sense of what slavery takes from mothers and children.

## Who they are

Eliza shares a cabin with Solomon on Ford's plantation, where she mothers the people around her even as her own children are sold away. When Solomon returns from his desperate flight, she tells him plainly that drowning might have been kinder than living under a cruel master. Her grief and her caregiving give the early chapters their emotional weight, showing that the system's cruelty is measured in severed families.

## Relationships

### [Theophilus Freeman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twelve_years_a_slave_se/characters/theophilus_freeman)

_professional_

Elizabeth is a slave owned by Freeman, who sells her and her children, treating them as property.

### [Little Emily](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twelve_years_a_slave_se/characters/little_emily)

_family_

Elizabeth is the mother of Little Emily, and their bond is shattered when Emily is sold away.

### [Elisha Berry](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twelve_years_a_slave_se/characters/elisha_berry)

_professional_

Elisha Berry is a slave trader who buys and sells Elizabeth, treating her as chattel.

### [Mr. Jacob Brooks](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twelve_years_a_slave_se/characters/mr_jacob_brooks)

_professional_

Mr. Jacob Brooks is a slaveholder who purchases Elizabeth, separating her from her children.

### [Little Emily](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twelve_years_a_slave_se/characters/little_emily)

_family_

Elizabeth is the mother of Little Emily, and their bond is shattered when Emily is sold away.

## In the story

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twelve_years_a_slave_se/chapters/i)

Solomon's eldest daughter, age ten in 1841.

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twelve_years_a_slave_se/chapters/ii)

Solomon's daughter; mentioned as possibly accompanying Anne to Sandy Hill.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twelve_years_a_slave_se/chapters/iii)

Mother of Randall and Emily; brought to the pen weeping, dressed in silk, lamenting her children's fate.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twelve_years_a_slave_se/chapters/iv)

Grieves for her children and sings hymns, mourning her separation from them.

### [Arrival at Norfolk and the Voyage to New Orleans](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twelve_years_a_slave_se/chapters/v)

Part of Burch's gang; consigned to Theophilus Freeman along with her children.

### [VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twelve_years_a_slave_se/chapters/vi)

Mother who desperately pleads to stay with her children Randall and Emily; is sold away from Emily.

### [VII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twelve_years_a_slave_se/chapters/vii)

Sold alongside Solomon to Ford; she is distressed and crying during the transfer.

### [VIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twelve_years_a_slave_se/chapters/viii)

Enslaved woman grieving for her children; reunited with Solomon on Bayou Boeuf, now feeble and emaciated.

### [Chapter IX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twelve_years_a_slave_se/chapters/ix)

Provides Solomon with a cooling drink and expresses pity for his suffering.

### [XI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twelve_years_a_slave_se/chapters/xi)

Dies in misery, neglected by her master, finally free in death.

### [Chapter XXII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twelve_years_a_slave_se/chapters/xxii)

One of Solomon's daughters, present at the reunion.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twelve_years_a_slave_se/characters/elizabeth
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twelve_years_a_slave_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twelve_years_a_slave_se/characters