The NY Times Just Published A Correction To '12 Years A Slave' Story 161 Years Later

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New York Magazine ran a piece Monday about how the New York Times covered the real life story of Oscar Best Picture winner "12 Years a Slave" in 1853.

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The film is based on an account from Solomon Northup, who was kidnapped and put into slavery for more than a decade.

NY Mag published the entire account, which is only available if you're a NYT subscriber.

Quickly someone noticed there was something off about the 1853 piece.

Take a look at a clip from the piece tweeted from NYMag to see if you can find the mistake:

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The Times had two big spelling errors. Northup's name was misspelled in both the title as Northrup and throughout the rest of the piece as Northrop.

The Times issued a correction 161 years later in today's edition after it was brought to the paper's attention on Twitter.

Here's the correction from the Times:


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Even NYMag made an oversight of the spelling, as Northup is currently referred to as Northrup on its site.


You can read the full piece on NYMag.