Black, White, and Freedom: Seeing the Color of Slavery Through Advertisements
Violence was only one condition that prompted slaves to runway for freedom. Scholars Franklin and Schweninger suggest that “the catalog of other areas of conflict that might prompt slaves to go on the run seemed endless.”5 If slaves expected to be sold, and that likelihood increased during difficult financial times for masters, they would be more likely to run away. Living close to their masters, it was not that hard to notice if the slaveholding family was going through hard times. Franklin and Schweninger stated that “when these problems,conflicts, and involvements impaired the ability of the masters to manage their slaves, when they became careless or lackadaisical or preoccupied, slaves then exploited the situation. They responded by lying out or running away.” 7
Look through the slave ads found on the Transcribed Ads page. What kinds of violence do you see in the descriptions of slaves' bodies?
Historian John Blassingame argues that “there is overwhelming evidence, in the primary sources, of the Negro’s resistance to his bondage and of his undying love for freedom. The yearning for freedom came with the first realization of the finality, of the fact, of slavery.”1 It would seem that slaves wanted more out of life than slavery could give them. Dreaming of freedom and talking about freedom lead slaves to desire freedom. Other factors played a part in the need for freedom by means of running away.
Courtesy of the Local History Department at the Columbus-Lowndes County Public Library in Mississippi.
Courtesy of West Virginia University.
Footnotes:
1. John W. Blassingame, The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South, p.104.
2. John W. Blassingame, The Slave Community, p. 160.
3. John W. Blassingame, p.160.
4. John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger, Runaway slaves: rebels on the plantation, p. 43.
5. Frankin and Schweninger, Runaway slaves, p.19.
6. Franklin and Schweninger, p. 23.
Violence against slaves played a role in their desire for freedom.
Historian Blassingame argues that “ many masters tried at first to demonstrate their own authority over the slave and then the superiority of all whites over blacks. They continually told the slave he was unfit for freedom, that every slave who attempted the escape was captured and sold further South, and that the black man must conform to the white man’s every wish.”3 Harsh punishments were dealt to slaves and prompted slaves to runaway. Scholars John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger stated that “slaves escaped with the mark of the whip on their backs, irons on their cheeks and foreheads, and missing fingers and toes.”4
The violence could be seen in the runaway/committed advertisements in the phsyical description of slaves' bodies. For example, on July 8, 1837, a runaway slave by the name of John was described in an advertisement having scars whippings.