Named an Outstanding Academic Book for 1999 by ^IChoice^R
John Hope Franklin is James B. Duke Professor of History, Emeritus,
at Duke University. He is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of
Freedom, and the author of numerous books, including the epic From
Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans, which boasts more
than three million copies in print.
Loren Schweninger is Professor of History at the University of
North Carolina, Greensboro.
"No one has yet explored the fugitives' world and its meaning for
the slave experience more deeply and with greater sophistication
than [the authors]...[This book] greatly enhances our understanding
of the system of slavery..."--Los Angeles Times Book Review
"Using documentation from broadsheets to diaries, the authors
provide incredible details of who the runaways were, their
motivations and destinations, and how their efforts failed or
succeeded. Franklin and Schweninger provide very personal accounts,
giving names and personalities to an aspect of U.S. slavery that is
seldom portrayed and refuting the mythology of the contented
slave."--Booklist
"Runaway Slaves is a highly informative and carefully researched
book."--Upscale
"[The authors] address the meaning of slave flight by inspecting
hundreds, perhaps thousands, of cases gleaned from a careful
reading of runaway advertisements and judicial and legislative
records. Their close analysis reveals that flight was not a single
phenomenon but many, because runaway slaves had different motives,
strategies, tactics, and goals...[This book] not only tells the
story of the minority who secured freedom and attacked slavery from
the
outside, but how even those who failed to gain their liberty
subverted slavery from the inside. In unfolding the fugitives'
tale, Franklin and Schweninger contribute mightily to our
understanding of how the
system of slavery stood for nearly three centuries and why it
eventually fell."--Ira Berlin, Los Angeles Times Book Review
(Chosen as a Best Book of 1999)
"Assiduous researchers, [the authors] have catalogued and
categorized in a 'Runaway Slave Database' a wealth of information,
which they impart extensively in their book."--Benjamin Schwarz,
The New York Times Book Review
"Thoreau said that historians show us the present more than the
past, and nothing illustrates his statement better than [this
book]...Runaway Slaves is a formidable corrective [that] tells us
more than we want to know about ourselves."--Kent Gramm, Civil War
Book Review
"[This] should be on the shelf of any person who has an interest in
Southern history or black history, and it certainly will be useful
in the classroom."--The Times (Roanoke, Virginia)
"An excellent book, the best available on the struggle between
slaves and their masters."--John David Smith, The News & Observer
(Raleigh, North Carolina)
"By repetitive and relentless example, Runaway Slaves gathers
force: the book is monumental in impact...What emerges is a picture
of powerful human resistance--and of a political and economic
system rotten to the core."--Phyllis Eckhaus, n These Times
"In this rich, descriptive volume, based on considerable archival
research...one of this country's most distinguished
historians...collaborates with one of his former students...to get
at the true nature of salvery in the Old South by examining the
significant number of slaves who by running away challenged the
system."--Robert L. Paquatte, The Washington Times
"Runaway Slaves provides an arsenal of ammunition to prove that the
Old South was indeed a war zone....[It] amply documents the
prevalence and variety of slave rebelliousness."--Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette
"An amazing wealth of detail on the backgrounds and experiences of
bondsmen and bondswomen who were so discontented with slavery, or
at least with their particular experience of it, that they simply
ran away...Franklin and Schweninger argue convincingly that more
than 50,000 (a conservative estimate) took flight each
year...Numbers aside, what is impressive about these runaways is
their sheer variety. Again and again, the authors offer a
generalization--for
instance, that young men were over-represented--and then swamp us
with counter-examples...Many different kinds of men and women
appear, but none who is docile, or cowed, or content."--John
Shelton Reed,
Times Literary Supplement
"What a treat to read the engrossing, indeed astonishing, new book
by John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger! Runaway Slaves: Rebels
on the Plantation, 1790-1860 is destined to be a classic and will
undoubtedly be well-received by the academic community and general
readers alike. The scholarship is truly impressive and it is
written in such accessible prose. This book should be on assigned
reading lists for as long as we teach American
History."--Darlene Clark Hine, co-author A Shining Thread of Hope:
The History of Black Women in America
"Meticulous, compassionate, and illuminating; John Hope Franklin
and Loren Schweninger in Runaway Slaves have bequeathed to all
Americans a modern masterpiece about White power, domination and
resistance, and the Black will to be free."--Darlene Clark Hine,
co-author, A Shining Thread of Hope: The History of Black Women in
America
"By any manner of reckoning John Hope Franklin and Loren
Schweninger have produced an extraordinary book about slavery that
addresses, authoritatively and persuasively, the basic nature of
the slave system...The overwhelming evidence presented in this
richly detailed study should dispel, once and for all, the notion
that runaway slaves were mere aberrations and that the slave South
was a tranquil society inhabited by benevolent white masters and
happy, loyal,
good-natured blacks contented with their lots as slaves."--Willard
B. Gatewood, Alumni Distinguished Professor of History, University
of Arkansas, Fayetteville
"A neglected dimension of slavery has finally been researched and
revealed in full. An important study by one of the nation's major
historians."--Sterling Stuckey, Professor of History, University of
California, Riverside
"This splendid book, full of human-interest accounts of escaped
slaves, does more than demonstrate the prevalence of slave
resistance by running away. By reflecting a bright, harsh light on
the institution of bondage, Runaway Slaves expands our knowledge
and understanding of slavery in the United States."--James M.
McPherson, Professor of History, Princeton University, and author
of Battle Cry of Freedom
"Dr. John Hope Franklin and his colleague, Dr. Loren Schweninger,
in writing this book have added a tremendous new dimension to our
understanding of what slave life was really like in the American
South. It does not cause one to lie down to pleasant
dreams."--William F. Winter, Attorney, member of President
Clinton's Race Initiative Advisory Board
"A well-crafted and carefully researched account that opens a new
window onto a dark and painful chapter in American
history."--Kirkus Reviews
"Scrupulously detailed."--Library Journal
"Using documentation from broadsheets to diaries, the authors
provide incredible details of who the runaways were, their
motivations and destinations, and how their efforts failed or
succeeded. Franklin and Schweninger provide very personal accounts,
giving names and personalities to an aspect of U.S. slavery that is
seldom portrayed and refuting the mythology of the contented
slave."--Booklist
"An important new book...Runaway Slaves compellingly documents the
perseverance of thousands of African Americans who fought to be
free."--Amy J. Kinsel, Seattle Times/Post Intellegencer
"Provides an arsenal of ammunition to prove that the Old South was
a war zone...The best book available on the struggle between slaves
and their owners."--John David Smith, Columbus Ohio Dispatch
"A well-documented study both refutes Ulrich B. Phillips' placating
view of the antebellum plantation and answers recent historians'
calls for clarification of the 'question of whether of not [slaves]
'actively resisted' the system...thorough and meticulous research
provides a truly groundbreaking affirmation of slave
resistance."--Journal of the American Studies Association of Texas
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