Running from Bondage

'Karen Cook Bell's research brilliantly shows that the phenomenon of Black female flight in the period of slavery was not idiosyncratic but was in fact pervasive. This pathbreaking and beautifully written work centers the voices of Black women in slavery and abolition. A must read.' Anne C. Bailey, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, History Department, and Director of the Harriet Tubman Center for the Study of Freedom and Equity, Binghamton University 'In this new account of the American Revolution, Karen Cook Bell tells the story of how Black women flipped slavery's geography of containment upside down and redrew it as a treasure map to self-liberation. Her deep dives into fugitive sources bring back amazing stories of women who seized a time of war and disruption as the opportunity to carry themselves and their loved ones out of bondage. After Running from Bondage, no account of this period will be complete unless it shows how Black women's freedom-seeking brought about revolutionary changes.' Edward E. Baptist, Professor of History, Cornell University 'Fugitive lives matter! Through the lives and actions of fugitive enslaved women, Running from Bondage will compel the reader to consider the impact of the enslaved upon the American Revolutionary Era. Karen Cook Bell simultaneously restores women to the discussion of fugitivity while restoring both women and fugitivity to the larger narrative of slave resistance during the period.' Peter J. Breaux, Associate Professor of History, Southern University and A&M College