First Published in 1994. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This collection of runaway slave notices from Virginia highlights the plight of African Americans fleeing bondage in early nineteenth century Virginia. Presented in modern type, the advertisements appear exactly as published. The preface situates these advertisements historically, and indicates the significance of the collection for studies of African American history, the history of slavery, and resistance to slavery in early American culture. The advertisements are presented chronologically and index by slave and master. This collection of historical documentation will be valuable to scholars interested in the history of slavery and resistance in America.

Republication on the twenty-fifth anniversary of “Pretends to Be Free” recognizes the signal importance of its sterling presentation of northern self-emancipation. Today, even more than a quarter-century ago, these fugitive slave notices are the best verbal snapshots of enslaved Americans before and during the American Revolution. Through these notices, readers can discover how enslaved blacks chose allegiance during our War for Independence. Replete with a preface by Edward E. Baptist, the leading scholar of slavery and capitalism and director of a massive project aimed at digitalizing every escape notice, and with a new Introduction and teacher’s guide by Graham Hodges, this new edition makes this documentary study more relevant than ever.

Escaping Bondage: A Documentary History of Runaway Slaves in Eighteenth-Century New England, 1700–1789 is an edited collection of runaway slave advertisements that appeared in newspapers in eighteenth-century Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. In addition to documenting the New England fugitive, it compliments similar runaway notice compilations. This compilation provides valuable insights into an important chapter in the history of slavery.

This bold and precedent-setting study details numerous slave rebellions against white masters, drawn from planters' records, government petitions, newspapers, and other documents. The reactions of white slave owners are also documented. 15 halftones.

A startling and eye-opening look into America’s First Family, Never Caught is the powerful story about a daring woman of “extraordinary grit” (The Philadelphia Inquirer). When George Washington was elected president, he reluctantly left behind his beloved Mount Vernon to serve in Philadelphia, the temporary seat of the nation’s capital. In setting up his household he brought along nine slaves, including Ona Judge. As the President grew accustomed to Northern ways, there was one change he couldn’t abide: Pennsylvania law required enslaved people be set free after six months of residency in the state. Rather than comply, Washington decided to circumvent the law. Every six months he sent the slaves back down south just as the clock was about to expire. Though Ona Judge lived a life of relative comfort, she was denied freedom. So, when the opportunity presented itself one clear and pleasant spring day in Philadelphia, Judge left everything she knew to escape to New England. Yet freedom would not come without its costs. At just twenty-two-years-old, Ona became the subject of an intense manhunt led by George Washington, who used his political and personal contacts to recapture his property. “A crisp and compulsively readable feat of research and storytelling” (USA TODAY), historian and National Book Award finalist Erica Armstrong Dunbar weaves a powerful tale and offers fascinating new scholarship on how one young woman risked everything to gain freedom from the famous founding father and most powerful man in the United States at the time.