Description
Book SynopsisBreaking with historical orthodoxy that claims Bacon's Rebellion marked the death knell of white labor in the Chesapeake and that colonial Virginians achieved racial hegemony in the eighteenth century, Escaping Servitude debunks the myth of the benign institution and the sentimentalized, content servant and reveals revolt and day-to-day resistance.
Trade ReviewNewspaper notices of fugitive slaves are relatively common fare in history texts and in the broader US historical consciousness. Lesser known are contemporaneous published newspaper notices of runaway servants of mainly European descent who fled to escape bondage. This study by historians Bly and Haygood provides a rich source of primary documents in the form of chronologically arranged transcriptions of all notices of runaway servants appearing in the Virginia Gazette and other newspapers over more than six decades of the 18th century. Although limited to Virginia, the work presents a unique perspective on an era of American history when men and women who were either indentured, apprentices in servitude, or convicts managed to escape their plight. The resultant notices provide rich details about the lives of these bondmen and bondwomen. There is an extensive introduction to the topic of servitude as well as a glossary of 18th-century vocabulary. . . .The authors do provide tables of aggregated data describing various characteristics of the servants. . . .A good addition to all academic libraries. Summing Up: Recommended. Undergraduates through researchers/faculty. * CHOICE *
Antonio Bly and Tamia Haygood have provided the first compendium of advertisements for indentured servants who fled bondage in early America. This excellent collection will enable students, laypeople, and historians alike to analyze and uncover the lives of thousands of people who previously have remained relatively unknown. -- Billy Smith, Montana State University
Table of ContentsContents Part 1 Half Slave, Half Free: A Study of the Runaway Servant in Eighteenth-Century Virginia Part 2 A Documentary History Notice on Notices Note on Newspapers Virginia Notices, 1738-1789 Glossary Appendix A Reprints Appendix B Tables Appendix B Images Appendix C James Revel, The Poor Unhappy Transported Felon's Sorrowful Account of His Fourteen Years Transportation, at Virginia, in America. In Six Parts. Subject Index Name Index About the Authors
