Overview

Freedom Ship is a gripping history of stowaway slaves and the vessels that carried them to liberty. Up to 100,000 fugitives successfully fled the horrors of bondage in the American South. Many were ushered clandestinely northwards from safe house to safe house: know as the Underground Railway. Thousands of others escaped not by land, but by sea. Their dramatic tales of whispered conspiracy and billowing sails make Freedom Ship essential and enthralling reading. Through the intricate riverways of the Carolinas to the banks of the Chesapeake Bay, Freedom Ship traces the freedom seekers who turned their sights to the sea. Sailaways regularly arrived in Britain on cotton ships from New York or Southern ports. For example, Moses Roper, one of the most determined runaways in American history, traveled 350 miles through slave country before eventually taking a ship named the Napoleon to Liverpool. Both legendary abolitionists Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman used the waterfront as a path to freedom. Marcus Rediker puts his command of archival research on full display in this luminous portrait of the Atlantic seaboard as a place of conspiracy, mutiny and liberation. PRAISE FOR THE SLAVE SHIP ‘I’m rereading The Slave Ship by Marcus Rediker, because it’s an absolutely fantastic book’ David Olusoga, Guardian ‘A truly magnificent book’ Sunday Telegraph 'A shockingly vivid work . . . from a gifted chronicler of history's lower decks, at home in the unruly Atlantic world of pirates, slavers, sailors, runaways and rebels' Boyd Tonkin, Independent

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9781836741718

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Reviews

The most ambitious work to date on the maritime underground * Wall Street Journal * Gripping and illuminating, Freedom Ship gives new meaning to the old nautical phrase ""cut and run"" -- Robin D. G. Kelley, author of <i>Thelonious Monk</i> Rediker anchors his book in a series of extraordinary Blue Highway narratives * New York Post * Marcus Rediker's deep knowledge of the maritime world is put to thrilling use in these stories -- Catherine Hall, author of <i>Lucky Valley</i> Brings to light a fascinating archive of the world of antebellum African American sailors and dock workers -- Robin Blackburn, author of <i>The Reckoning</i> These awe-inspiring escape stories . encourage those of us today who still believe in freedom to build on these legacies -- Angela Y. Davis, author of <i>Freedom Is a Constant Struggle</i>

Author Information

Marcus Rediker is Distinguished Professor of Atlantic History at the University of Pittsburgh. His many books include The Slave Ship, The Amistad Rebellion and The Fearless Benjamin Lay. He has produced a film, Ghosts of Amistad, with director Tony Buba, and written a play, The Return of Benjamin Lay, with playwright Naomi Wallace. He lives in Pittsburgh.

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