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A review by bahareads
Running from Bondage: Enslaved Women and Their Remarkable Fight for Freedom in Revolutionary America by Karen Cook Bell
5.0
Running from Bondage pushes enslaved women's to desire for freedom for themselves and their children compelling them to run away during the American Revolutionary War. The war was a time where a lack of oversight allowed more opportunities for marronage. Bell wants to challenge the lack of Black women's representation in Revolutionary America and show "the ways in which Black women enter history." Using fugitive narratives shows the integral role in the 18th abolitionist movement. Bell builds on the history of how the American Revolution impacted freedom and slavery by highlighting the experiences of enslaved and fugitive women.
Running away was an expression of agency and a strategic act. Flight was a method of fighting against the oppressive system. Two themes throughout Running from Bondage are the creation of a rival geography through fugitivity and using fugitivity as an act of resistance. She's not reinventing the wheel but she is highlighting underrepresented voices. Running from Bondage seeks to answer several questions, and she answers all the questions she poses.
The different chapters examine the various questions Bell poses. There is an analysis of the status and position of enslaved women; an examination of the pre-Revolutionary period; the ideas of the American Revolution while placing fugitive enslaved women on the front; obstacles enslaved women faced in escaping bondage; and the gendered dimensions of maroon communities in America and the Atlantic world. Enslaved rebellions and rumours of rebellions illuminate the networks women used to secure their freedom. Runaway slave ads descriptions allow enslaved people's bodies to be as text to understand the tangible effects of slavery. Ads recognize runaways' historical visibility. Freedom for enslaved people was temporally and spatially changing, dependent on the interplay of a variety of processes.
"Enslaved women who escaped to join maroon communities unabashedly claimed the liberty denied to them and fundamentally transformed their lived experiences."
Running away was an expression of agency and a strategic act. Flight was a method of fighting against the oppressive system. Two themes throughout Running from Bondage are the creation of a rival geography through fugitivity and using fugitivity as an act of resistance. She's not reinventing the wheel but she is highlighting underrepresented voices. Running from Bondage seeks to answer several questions, and she answers all the questions she poses.
The different chapters examine the various questions Bell poses. There is an analysis of the status and position of enslaved women; an examination of the pre-Revolutionary period; the ideas of the American Revolution while placing fugitive enslaved women on the front; obstacles enslaved women faced in escaping bondage; and the gendered dimensions of maroon communities in America and the Atlantic world. Enslaved rebellions and rumours of rebellions illuminate the networks women used to secure their freedom. Runaway slave ads descriptions allow enslaved people's bodies to be as text to understand the tangible effects of slavery. Ads recognize runaways' historical visibility. Freedom for enslaved people was temporally and spatially changing, dependent on the interplay of a variety of processes.
"Enslaved women who escaped to join maroon communities unabashedly claimed the liberty denied to them and fundamentally transformed their lived experiences."