Runaway slaves
Subtitle: rebels on the plantation
By: John Hope Franklin, Loren Schweninger.
Contributors: Schweninger, Loren.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 455
Subjects: Slave insurrections -- Southern States; Fugitive slaves -- Southern States -- History; Southern States -- History -- 1775-1865
Description: In this book, John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger demonstrate that, contrary to popular belief, significant numbers of slaves did in fact frequently rebel against their masters and struggle to attain their freedom.

By surveying a wealth of documents, such as planters' records, petitions to county courts and state legislatures, and local newspapers, this book shows how slaves resisted; when, where, and how they escaped; where they fled to; how long they remained in hiding; and how they survived away from the plantation.

Of equal importance, it examines the reactions of the white slaveholding class, revealing how they marshaled considerable effort to prevent runaways, meted out severe punishments, and established patrols to hunt down escaped slaves.

Reflecting a lifetime of thought by our leading authority in African American history, this book provides the key to truly understanding the relationship between slaveholders and the runaways who challenged the system - illuminating as never before the true nature of the South's "most peculiar institution."
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [417]-426) and index.