During the War for American Independence, the British Army attempted to create chaos and inflict economic damage to the revolutionaries’ war effort by issuing two proclamations that promised freedom to any enslaved person who ran away from their revolutionary owners.

How did enslaved people make their escape to British lines? What do we know about their lives and escape experiences?

Karen Cook-Bell, an Associate Professor of History at Bowie State University and author of Running From Bondage: Enslaved Women and Their Remarkable Fight for Freedom in Revolutionary America, joins us to investigate the experiences of enslaved women who feld their bondage for the British Army’s promise of freedom.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/322

Complementary Episodes

🎧 Episode 137: Erica Dunbar, The Washingtons’ Runaway Slave, Ona Judge

🎧 Episode 142: Manisha Sinha, A History of Abolitionism

🎧 Episode 157: The Revolution’s African American Soldiers

🎧 Episode 162: Dunmore’s New World

🎧 Episode 212: Researching Biography

🎧 Episode 277: Whose Fourth of July?

🎧 Episode 312: Joshua D. Rothman, The Domestic Slave Trade

REQUEST A TOPIC

📨 Topic Request Form

📫 [email protected]

WHEN YOU'RE READY

🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 

👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener Community

LISTEN 🎧

🍎 Apple Podcasts 

💚 Spotify 

🎶 Amazon Music

🛜 Pandora

CONNECT

🦋 Liz on Bluesky

👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn

🛜 Liz’s Website

SAY THANKS

💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

💚 Leave a rating on Spotify

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices