David Wilson

David Wilson (September 17, 1818 – June 9, 1870) was an American lawyer, writer and politician from New York.

He was born on September 17, 1818, in West Hebron, Washington County, New York. He graduated from Union College in 1840. Then he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1843, and practiced law in Whitehall. After some time he abandoned the practice of law, and engaged in literary pursuits, writing books on historical subjects.

Wilson suffered from poor health for a good part of his life, and because of that he largely gave up his law career. He turned to authoring books on historical subjects. We wrote:

• Life in Whitehall: A Tale of the Ship Fever Times (1849), a collection of newspaper articles on Whitehall during a typhus outbreak.
• The Life of Jane McCrea: With an Account of Burgoyne’s Expedition in 1777 (1853), a biography of Jane McCrea.
• Henrietta Robinson (1855) about Mrs. Henrietta Robinson, known as the veiled murderess, who was sentenced to be hung on August 3, 1855, at Troy, New York, for a murder.

Wilson is best known for publishing in 1853,Twelve Years a Slave as told to him by Solomon Northup.

He was a Whig member of the New York State Assembly in 1852. In 1857, he was appointed as Deputy New York State Treasurer, and moved permanently to Albany. He was Clerk of the New York State Assembly from January 26, 1858, to January 4, 1859, officiating in the 81st New York State Legislature. At this time he was a member of the American Party. He was Deputy Clerk of the New York Court of Appeals from 1860 to 1862.

He died on June 9, 1870, in Albany, and was buried at the New Hebron Cemetery in Hebron.