Book Review: Running from Bondage: Enslaved Women and Their Remarkable Fight for Freedom in Revolutionary America

Running From Bondage: Enslaved Women and Their Remarkable Fight For Freedom In Revolutionary America by Karen Cook Bell (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021)

A “wench” name Lucia. A mulatto woman named Margaret. A well-dressed woman named Jenny. A woman called Bett. These individuals are the subjects of the first four chapters of Karen Cook Bell’s book, Running From Bondage: Enslaved Women and Their Remarkable Fight For Freedom In Revolutionary America. The four women, who were actual historical figures, exemplify the many enslaved women who took it upon themselves to escape from forced labor and sexual exploitation. They understood the meaning of liberty and acted on attaining it. Bell argues “that enslaved women’s desire for freedom for themselves and their children propelled them to flee slavery during the Revolutionary War, a time when lack of oversight, and opportunity due to the presence of British troops, created spaces for them to invoke the same philosophical arguments of liberty that White revolutionaries made in their own fierce struggle against oppression.” (p. 3)

The term that occurs throughout the book is “fugitivity,” an act of resistance in which one became a fugitive, or a run-away. Only a few historians have ever tackled this subject, and if they did it was very brief. How did Black women advance their own liberation during the Revolution? How did regional differences affect the flight of enslaved women? How did fugitivity fit into the larger narrative of slave resistance? Bell’s effort is to make sure that Black women are included as part of the American Revolution story. She makes extensive use of newspaper advertisements, which posted important information about escaped slaves: names, clothing, physical and personality descriptions. Focusing on the fugitives as individuals was necessary to answer these questions.

The first chapter, “A Negro Wench Named Lucia,” describes the brutal conditions of enslaved women during the 1700s. Work was physically demanding and had an adverse effect on the women’s health and ability to have children. Sexual crimes by overseers and owners were a life-threatening concern for enslaved women. A master like Thomas Jefferson valued women slaves as breeders who would naturally increase his “stock.” Life in the northern colonies was not as difficult due to the different demands of the economy but creating a community of Black women was hard because of the uneven ratio of men to women. Acts of resistance and the punitive laws against them in South Carolina and Virginia are explored in the book.

The mid-Atlantic colonies (New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware) is the center of Margaret Grant’s story in the second chapter, “‘A Mulatto Woman Named Margaret’: Pre-Revolutionary Fugitive Women.” Fugitive slave advertisements provide insights into the lives of slaves and indentured servants, who sometimes were involved with helping women escape. Clothing was a major part of slave life since it was used as an incentive and for bartering. What women took with them on their bodies was important. The third chapter, “‘A Well Dressed Woman Named Jenny’: Revolutionary Black Women, 1776-1781,”begins with Lord Dunmore’s proclamation that offered freedom to enslaved persons who ran away from American plantations. Almost 800 women escaped within three weeks after the announcement. Later the British in South Carolina issued the Philipsburg Proclamation of 1779, promising to take slaves on rebel farms and sell them for the benefit of the British army. The enslaved women faced a paradox: stay on the plantations and risk ill health and death due to the deprivations or war, or escape to the British lines where there was a chance of betrayal and they would remain enslaved? Meanwhile, people in the new nation were wrestling with the reality of slavery and the idealism of the American Revolution. Slavery violated natural law, but geography determined how far that understanding went. New England was preparing for abolition, but the southern states could not bring themselves to consider it.

The difficulties fugitives faced after escape is the focus of Chapter 4, “A Negro Woman Named Bett.” Bett reached Philadelphia in 1781 because the city had become a “freedom zone” for fugitives during the British occupation. Gradual emancipation laws were passed in the north, and Mary Freeman was able to get abolition for the state of Massachusetts. Black women in the southern states also headed to urban areas, where they received support from large Black communities. While slavery increased in the Carolinas and Georgia, the growth of a free Black population indicated the growing anti-slavery sentiment, influenced by the American Revolution and the rebellion on St. Domingo. Women, such as Washington’s former slave Ona Judge, “who escaped, treaded the middle ground between slavery and freedom, literally and metaphorically. Freedom through flight allowed women to control their own ideas about freedom.” (p. 136)

Maroon communities in swamps, mountains, and deep woods were important for fugitives. The fifth chapter, “Confronting the Power Structures: Marronage and Black Women’s Fugitivity,”describes the Great Dismal Swamp between Virginia and North Carolina, home to an estimated thousand escaped slaves. Life was difficult in the freshwater swamps, but they still offered protection. Maroon communities also appeared in the swamps and bayous bordering the Mississippi River and in Western Florida. The Spanish controlled this land, but often helped the communities by allowing them to thrive.

The Conclusion of Running From Bondage reiterates the idea of fugitivity being intertwined with the American Revolution. As the nation expanded, resistance in the form of running away increased. The War of 1812 provided more opportunities for fugitivity. Bell stresses that the Haitian Revolution was extremely important in the study of slave history and abolitionism, and it greatly influenced many fugitives. The ideals of equality from the end of the eighteenth century and beginning of the nineteenth century are even now in evidence in the form of the Black Lives Matter protests. The appendix of Bell’s unique book provides brief descriptions of eleven fugitive women who emigrated to Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone. Each one is named and has a unique story.

Running From Bondage: Enslaved Women and Their Remarkable Fight For Freedom In Revolutionary America is an easy read, but also very informative. The story of each individual allows the reader to learn about anti-slavery efforts during the early years of the American nation. The few illustrations of what fugitives wore provide the reader a better sense of the women who are topics of each chapter. Karen Cook Bell has succeeded in presenting a work of history that covers familiar events with a personal touch. The fact that Black women ran from slavery is not a new fact, but associating the history with the names of real women allows for greater understanding.