Freedom Seekers. : Escaping from Slavery in Restoration London / Simon P. Newman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Newman, Simon P. (Simon Peter), 1960- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fugitive slaves.

Slavery.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxix, 234) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Freedom Seekers

Place of Publication:

London 2022

London : University of London Press, 2022.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Freedom Seekers reveals the hidden stories of enslaved and bound people who attempted to escape from captivity in England’s capital. In 1655 White Londoners began advertising in the English-speaking world’s first newspapers for enslaved people who had escaped. Based on the advertisements placed in these newspapers by masters and enslavers offering rewards for so-called runaways, this book brings to light for the first time the history of slavery in England as revealed in the stories of resistance by enslaved workers. Featuring a series of case-studies of individual "freedom-seekers", this book explores the nature and significance of escape attempts as well as detailing the likely routes and networks they would take to gain their freedom. The book demonstrates that not only were enslaved people present in Restoration London but that White Londoners of this era were intimately involved in the construction of the system of racial slavery, a process that traditionally has been regarded as happening in the colonies rather than the British Isles. An unmissable and important book that seeks to delve into Britain’s colonial past.

Contents:

Cover

Title

Copyright

Contents

List of illustrations

About the author

A note on language

Acknowledgements

Escape Route

Prologue: Ben

Part I Restoration London and the enslaved

1. London

2. The Black community

3. Freedom seekers in Restoration London

Part II The freedom seekers

4. Jack: boys

5. Francisco/Bugge: South Asians

6. 'A black Girl' and 'an Indian black girl': female freedom seekers

7. Caesar: country marks

8. Benjamin: branded

9. Pompey: shackled

10. Quoshey: escaping from ships and their captains

11. Goude: Thames-side maritime communities

12. Quamy: merchants, bankers, printers and coffee houses

13. David Sugarr and Henry Mundy: escaping from colonial planters in London

14. Calib and 'a Madagascar Negro': freedom seekers in the London suburbs and beyond

15. 'Peter': London's connected community of slave-ownership

Part III Freedom seekers in the colonies

16. Freedom seekers and the law in England's American and Caribbean colonies

17. London precedents in New World contexts: the runaway advertisement in the colonies

Epilogue: King

Index

Back Cover.

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-914477-24-3

1-912702-94-0

OCLC:

1535976848