Freedom seekers : fugitive slaves in North America, 1800-1860 / Damian Alan Pargas.
In this fascinating book, Damian Alan Pargas introduces a new conceptualization of "spaces of freedom" for fugitive slaves in North America between 1800 and 1860, and answers the questions: How and why did enslaved people flee to -- and navigate -- different destinations throughout the con...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge, United KIngdom ; New York, NY :
Cambridge University Press,
2022.
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| Series: | Cambridge studies on the American South.
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| Summary: | In this fascinating book, Damian Alan Pargas introduces a new conceptualization of "spaces of freedom" for fugitive slaves in North America between 1800 and 1860, and answers the questions: How and why did enslaved people flee to -- and navigate -- different destinations throughout the continent, and to what extent did they succeed in evading recapture and reenslavement? Taking a continental approach, this study highlights the diversity of slave flight by conceptually dividing the continent into three distinct -- and continuously evolving -- spaces of freedom. Namely, spaces of informal freedom in the US South, where enslaved people attempted to flee by passing as free blacks; spaces of semi-formal freedom in the US North, where slavery was abolished but the precise status of fugitive slaves was contested; and spaces of formal freedom in Canada and Mexico, where slavery was abolished and runaways were considered legally free and safe from reenslavement. |
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| Physical Description: | xii, 297 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 267-292) and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781107179554 1107179556 9781316631355 |