Northward bound: Slave refugees and the pursuit of freedom in the Northern US and Canada, 1775-1861

Abstract

Between the American Revolutionary War and the US Civil War (roughly 1775-1861), thousands of enslaved African Americans fled from the US South to the northern ‘free’ states and British Canada. While many fled to British lines during wartime, other self-emancipators availed of interracial freedom networks commonly known as the Underground Railroad. Within their respective receiving societies, slave refugees established new lives as free men and women. At the same time, they encountered numerous challenges and obstacles, such as poverty and unemployment, racial prejudice and discrimination, and the threat of re-enslavement. Through a comparative and transnational lens, Northward Bound re-examines the various migrations of African American freedom seekers from the South to the North and Canada. It explores the motivations behind self-emancipation, the routes taken by freedom seekers, and the nature of escape to the North and Canada. Furthermore, Northward Bound analyzes the experiences of slave refugees in the northern US, the Canadian Maritimes, and southwestern Ontario. Following Damian Pargas’ recent typology, this study demonstrates that British Canada emerged as a space of ‘formal’ freedom for African American freedom seekers, whereas the northern US developed into a space of ‘semi-formal’ freedom.