Northup was a Christian of his time, writing of his former master being "blinded" by "circumstances" that in retrospect meant a racist acceptance of slavery despite being a Christian, a position untenable to Christians now and to Christian abolitionists of the 19th century but not contradictory to Northup himself.
Northup je bio Kršćanin svog vremena, a o svom bivšem vlasniku (Fordu) pisao je da je bio "zaslijepljen okolnostima" što bi u retrospektivi značilo rasističko prihvaćanje robovlasništva unatoč tome što je Ford bio Kršćanin - pozicija koja je neprihvatljiva modernim Kršćanima te kršćanskim abolicionistima 19. stoljeća, ali ne i kontradiktorna samom Northupu.