Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation

by John Hope Franklin

Targeting areas with free black populations was not only done to achieve anonymity, but to obtain assistance. Many slaves in the Upper South, and not a few in the Lower South as well, had friends, acquaintances, and relatives who were free. “DESERTED the premises,” declared one Virginia owner, adding that he had reason to believe that his slave Bob was being “harbored by free negroes.” In Loudoun and Fauquier counties, fugitives sought out free relatives and friends to such an extent that whites petitioned the General Assembly to rid the state of free people of color because “in many instances” they provided food, clothing, protection, and safe haven for their brethren in bondage. A man in Norfolk, signing his petition “A Virginian,” said that areas with large numbers of free blacks were favorite hiding places for runaways. Moreover, in these areas free women of color exerted a great deal of influence and stubbornly refused to be deported to West Africa, where whites wished to send free blacks. They were thus not only willing to harbor runaways, but by rejecting emigration, they also assisted slaves by maintaining stable free black communities where runaways could find refuge.31