David Wilson

David Wilson (September 17, 1818 – June 9, 1870) was an American lawyer, writer and politician from New York. He is best known for his role in publishing Twelve Years a Slave, as told to him by Solomon Northup, in 1853.

Early life David Wilson was born on September 17, 1818, in West Hebron, Washington County, New York. He attended Salem Washington Academy in Salem, New York. He was Deputy Clerk of the New York Court of Appeals from 1860 to 1862.

Wilson stated that he had not intended for the book to be as long as it became. Northup had wanted to include a lot of details that may not be critical to the telling of the story, but made it an important historical account of life on several plantations and the cruelty they endured. A group of Union soldiers who had earlier read the book met Northrup's enslaver Edwin Epps during the Civil War. Epps told them that "a greater part of the book was truth."

Later life and death In his later years, Wilson was part-owner of a brewery. and was buried at the New Hebron Cemetery in Hebron.