
James H. Birch was an American slave trader who lived in Washington DC during the mid-19th century. In 1841, he bought the kidnapped Black man Solomon Northup from the con men Merrill Brown and Abram Hamilton, and he sold him to his partner Theophilus Freeman in New Orleans. He went on to preside over Alexandria's largest slave pen, and he was later tried and acquitted for Northup's kidnapping and illegal sale.