{"product_id":"fugitivism-s-charles-bolton-9781682260999","title":"Fugitivism: Escaping Slavery in the Lower Mississippi Valley, 1820-1860","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner, 2020 Booker Worthen Literary Prize\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDuring the antebellum years, over 750,000 enslaved people were taken to the Lower Mississippi Valley, where two-thirds of them were sold in the slave markets of New Orleans, Natchez, and Memphis. Those who ended up in Louisiana found themselves in an environment of swamplands, sugar plantations, French-speaking creoles, and the exotic metropolis of New Orleans. Those sold to planters in the newly-opened Mississippi Delta cleared land and cultivated cotton for owners who had moved west to get rich as quickly as possible, driving this labor force to harsh extremes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLike enslaved people all over the South, those in the Lower Mississippi Valley left home at night for clandestine parties or religious meetings, sometimes \"laying out\" nearby for a few days or weeks. Some of them fled to New Orleans and other southern cities where they could find refuge in the subculture of slaves and free blacks living there, and a few attempted to live permanently free in the swamps and forests of the surrounding area. Fugitives also tried to returnto eastern slave states to rejoin families from whom they had been separated. Some sought freedom on the northern side of the Ohio River; othersfled to Mexico for the same purpose.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eFugitivism\u003c\/i\u003e provides a wealth of new information taken from advertisements, newspaper accounts, and court records. It explains how escapees made use of steamboat transportation, how urban runaways differed from their rural counterparts, how enslaved people were victimized by slave stealers, how conflicts between black fugitives and the white people who tried to capture them encouraged a culture of violence in the South, and how runaway slaves from the Lower Mississippi Valley influenced the abolitionist movement in the North.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eReaders will discover that along with an end to oppression, freedom-seeking slaves wanted the same opportunities afforded to most Americans.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e S. Charles Bolton\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1682260992\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781682260999\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Arkansas Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/22\/2019\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 300\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.40lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.20h x 6.30w x 1.20d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 12\/01\/2019","brand":"S. Charles Bolton","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48065786839295,"sku":"9781682260999","price":39.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_e01b669e-40ca-4a35-a738-08cb1cfe1ef6.jpg?v=1768677271","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/fugitivism-s-charles-bolton-9781682260999","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}