Documenting Runaway Slaves in the U.S. South: Challenges and Opportunities

For generations, important aspects about slave life on the plantations of the American South have remained shrouded. Historians thought, for instance, that slaves were generally pliant and resigned to their roles as human chattel, and that racial violence on the plantation was an aberration. This presentation will consider how, contrary to popular belief, significant numbers of slaves did in fact frequently rebel against their masters and struggle to attain their freedom, as evidenced by slaves running away, and the challenges and opportunities for historians and other scholars of compiling runaway slave advertisements.