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Title page of Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Searching for the Elusive Man Who Inspired Uncle Tom’s Cabin

John Andrew Jackson spent a night at Harriet Beecher Stowe’s home as he fled north. Why do so few traces of his visit remain?
by Scott Wasserman Stern via The New Republic on October 24, 2024
John Andrew Jackson riding a galloping horse and tipping his hat.
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How Do We Tell a Tale of People Who Sought to Disappear?

The life of John Andrew Jackson — and the vacillating richness and scarcity of the archive.
by Susanna Ashton via HNN on August 13, 2024
In this drawing from ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin,’ a Black child is taken from his mother by a white man.

The Black Fugitive Who Inspired ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ and the End of US Slavery

Born enslaved, John Andrew Jackson spent his life fighting for freedom as a fugitive, abolitionist, lecturer and writer.
by Susanna Ashton via The Conversation on July 17, 2024
Combahee River.

Harriet Tubman and the Second South Carolina Volunteers Bring Freedom to the Combahee River

The story of how Harriet Tubman led 150 African American soldiers to rescue over 700 former slaves freed five months earlier by the Emancipation Proclamation.
by Edda Fields-Black via History Uncut on June 19, 2024
Silhouette of a Black man's head, against a background of Lord Dunmore's proclamation.

Enslaved by George Washington, This Man Escaped to Freedom—and Joined the British Army

Harry Washington fought for his enslaver's enemy during the American Revolution. Later, he migrated to Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone.
by Francine Uenuma via Smithsonian on June 14, 2023
Cover of "Vigilance: The Life of William Still, Father of the Underground Railroad" by Andrew K. Diemer

A Historian Forgotten

A new biography of William Still show how the abolitionist documented the underground railroad as he helped people through it.
by Bennett Parten via Los Angeles Review of Books on May 7, 2023
Illustration of Black fugitives fleeing slavery on the Underground Railroad

How Some Enslaved Black People Found Freedom in Southern Slaveholding States

Instead of using the Underground Railroad as a route north, thousands of enslaved Black people fled to communities in the South.
by Viola Franziska Müller via The Conversation on January 24, 2023
Cover of "Escape to the City" featuring an urban neighborhood.

Fugitive Slaves in the Antebellum South and the Question of Freedom in American History

The oft forgetten story of fugitive slaves whose escape from bondage found them in the Antebellum South's major cities.
by Viola Franziska Müller via UNC Press Blog on November 14, 2022
Abolitionist broadside from 1854 calling out the fugitive slave bill commissioner

An Angry Mob Broke Into A Jail Looking For A Black Man—Then Freed Him

How Oct. 1 came to be celebrated as “Jerry Rescue Day” in abolitionist Syracuse.
by Gillian Brockell via Retropolis on October 1, 2022
Bernard Lynch's slave pen in St. Louis, with many potential buyers standing outside.

The Remarkable Story of Mattie J. Jackson

Her narrative documents the very real dangers enslaved runaways experienced while traveling through so-called "free states" of the North.
by Nick Sacco via Muster on March 29, 2022
Three children playing on a frozen river.

The Ohio River

When the river freezes, lives change.
by Tiya Miles via Perspectives on History on January 27, 2022
Painting of British soldiers surrendering their arms to George Washington.

The Yorktown Tragedy: Washington's Slave Roundup

History books remember Yorktown as a "victory for the right of self-determination." But the battle guaranteed slavery for nearly another century.
by Gregory Urwin via Journal of the American Revolution on October 19, 2021

Black Women and American Freedom in Revolutionary America

The relationship between enslaved women and the Revolutionary war.
by Karen Cook Bell via Black Perspectives on July 13, 2021
A painting entitled Our Town, with Black children playing on a suburban street

The Truth About Black Freedom

This year’s Juneteenth commemorations must take a deeper look at the history of Black self-liberation to understand what emancipation really means.
by Daina Ramey Berry via The Atlantic on June 18, 2021
Wooden cross in the Eli Jackson Methodist Church cemetery in San Juan, Texas.

When Slaves Fled to Mexico

A new book tells the forgotten story of fugitive slaves who found freedom south of the border.
by David S. Reynolds via New York Review of Books on May 13, 2021
African American men who escaped slavery at a US Army Camp.

John Wolcott Phelps’ Emancipation Proclamation

The story of John Wolcott Phelps and his push for Lincoln to emancipate all slaves.
by David T. Dixon via Emerging Civil War on January 4, 2021
A map of Mexico.

When the Enslaved Went South

How Mexico—and the fugitives who went there—helped make freedom possible in America.
by Alice L. Baumgartner via The New Yorker on November 19, 2020

Slave Hounds and Abolition in the Americas

How dogs permeated slave societies and bolstered European ambitions for colonial expansion and social domination.
by Tyler D. Parry, Charlton W. Yingling via Past & Present on February 4, 2020

‘A Doubtful Freedom’

Andrew Delbanco's new book positions the debate over fugitive slaves as a central factor in the nation's slide toward disunion.
by David W. Blight via New York Review of Books on January 14, 2020
Fugitive slave ad taken out by Thomas Jefferson.

Freedom on the Move

A database of fugitives from American Slavery.
via Freedom on the Move Project on February 20, 2019

On Richard Blackett’s "The Captive Quest for Freedom"

Five historians weigh in on a new book about the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act.
by Martha S. Jones, Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie, Elizabeth R. Varon, H. Robert Baker, Hannah-Rose Murray, Simon Newman via Historians Against Slavery on August 2, 2018
Millard Filmore.
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Remembering the Sins of Millard Fillmore

A little-remembered president's most notorious act.
by Carole Emberton via Made By History on January 5, 2018

The Thrilling Tale of How Robert Smalls Seized a Confederate Ship and Sailed it to Freedom

He risked his life to liberate his family and became a legend in the process.
by Cate Lineberry via Smithsonian on June 13, 2017

Frederick Douglass, Refugee

Throughout modern history, the millions forced to flee as refugees have felt Douglass' agony, and thought his thoughts.
by David W. Blight via The Atlantic on February 7, 2017
Book cover with the title "Baby Boy Born Birthplace Blues" superimposed on a photo of a man lying down with his cheek on the ground.

Baby Boy Born Birthplace Blues

"The blues was born on a riverboat between Louisville and New Albany, along those docks, in the 1890s. I mean, the blues was born nowhere, of course. Or it was born many places."
by John Jeremiah Sullivan via Oxford American on December 6, 2016

Deep in the Swamps, Archaeologists Are Finding How Fugitive Slaves Kept Their Freedom

The Great Dismal Swamp was once a thriving refuge for runaways.
by Richard Grant via Smithsonian on September 1, 2016
Broadside about the Fugitive Slave law.

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850: Annotated

The Fugitive Slave Act erased the most basic of constitutional rights for enslaved people and incentivized US Commissioners to support kidnappers.
by Liz Tracey via JSTOR Daily on May 19, 2025
Enslaved people crossing a river at night.

The Power of the Dead: BaKongo Inspiration and the Chesapeake Rebellion

Sensitivity to the influence of BaKongo cosmology on Kongo Christianity can help us better understand the choices made by leaders of the rebellion.
by Ryne Beddard via Commonplace on May 6, 2025
"The Underground Railroad" (1893) by Charles T. Webber depicts a fugitive slave reaching the North.

The Abolitionist Titan You’ve Never Heard Of

John Rankin, minister and fierce abolitionist, is a man worth remembering in our moment.
by Isaac Willour via Law & Liberty on November 8, 2024
Homepage of Freedom Seekers website.

Freedom Seekers: Stories of Black Liberation in the American Revolutionary Era and Beyond

A new digital project shows how those who escaped slavery were important actors in the challenge not just to their own enslavement but to slavery more broadly.
by Billy G. Smith, Simon Newman, Antonio T. Bly, Gloria McCahon Whiting via Commonplace on September 24, 2024
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