Edwin Epps (1808-????) was an American slave owner who lived in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana during the mid-19th century.
Biography[]
Edwin Epps was born in North Carolina in 1808, and he became an overseer on the Oakland Plantation near Alexandria, Louisiana. He married Mary Elvira Robert in 1843 and had seven children with her, and he purchased 325.5 acres in Avoyelles Parish. He never attained the status of the planter class, and he was known for his violent temper and his alcoholism, as well as for his frequent abuse of his slaves. Epps frequently raped his slave Patsey and whipped her when she resisted, and he was also abusive towards Solomon Northup, who was sold to him by William Prince Ford. Northup was freed in 1853 after it was proven that he was illegally kidnapped, and Patsey was freed in 1863 when Union Army troops arrived at the plantation during the American Civil War.