Antonio T. Bly

This highly illustrated publication marks the origins of a revolutionary new nation, focusing on the years 1775 and 1776, the events that preceded and followed, and the people who contributed to its formation. The book recognizes Virginians who have become famous for their role in shaping the new nation, including Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and spotlights the multitude of ordinary people who were living and acting in those extraordinary times. Combining compelling modes of presentation with historic artifacts, artwork, and documents, the volume acknowledges the central notion that Virginia’s history is America’s story: complex, diverse, and inspiring.

Escaping Slavery is a documentary history of Native Americans in British North America. This study of indigenous peoples captures the lives of numerous individuals who refused to sacrifice their humanity in the face of the violent, changing landscapes of early America.

Escaping Matrimony is a documentary history of hundreds of husbands and wives who ran away from one another over the course of the eighteenth-century. In this collection of elopement advertisements, men and women protested marriage, challenged coverture, and declared themselves independent and free. In an endeavor to discredit and intimidated their spouses, husbands and wives used early American newspapers to achieved at once voice and agency in a complex world that would have preferred that they endured unnoticed and in silence.

Escaping Slavery is a documentary history of Native Americans in British North America. This study of indigenous peoples captures the lives of numerous individuals who refused to sacrifice their humanity in the face of the violent, changing landscapes of early America.

Escaping Servitude: A Documentary History of Runaway Servants in Eighteenth-Century Virginia is an edited collection of runaway servant advertisements that appeared in newspapers in eighteenth-century Virginia. In addition to documenting the fugitive in the Chesapeake, it adds to our understanding of indentured servitude and provides valuable insights into an important chapter in American history. Escaping Servitude’s contribution to scholarship is threefold. First, it calls new attention to the scant scholarly body of work concerning indentured servitude; specifically, the work pertaining to fugitive servants. Highlighting well over one thousand accounts in which bondsmen and women ran away from their masters in Virginia during the colonial era, Escaping Servitude complements Abbot Emerson Smith’s Colonist in Bondage: White Servitude and Convict Labor in America, 1607-1776, Edmund Morgan’s American, American Freedom, David W. Galenson’s White Servitude in Colonial America, Anthony Parent Jr.’s Foul Means, Don Jordon and Michael Walsh’s White Cargo, and others studies of American serfdom. Secondly, considering that there is currently no other documentary history in print for other colonies in British America, Escaping Servitude hopes to inspire similar histories for eighteenth-century Maryland, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and the northern colonies. Less known are the life stories of indentures who absconded in other parts of British America. Finally, in its explication of the lives of the unfree, Escaping Servitude hopes to expand the current academic discourse regarding the history of slavery and race.

Escaping Servitude: A Documentary History of Runaway Servants in Eighteenth-Century Virginia is an edited collection of runaway servant advertisements that appeared in newspapers in eighteenth-century Virginia. In addition to documenting the fugitive in the Chesapeake, it adds to our understanding of indentured servitude and provides valuable insights into an important chapter in American history. Escaping Servitude’s contribution to scholarship is threefold. First, it calls new attention to the scant scholarly body of work concerning indentured servitude; specifically, the work pertaining to fugitive servants. Highlighting well over one thousand accounts in which bondsmen and women ran away from their masters in Virginia during the colonial era, Escaping Servitude complements Abbot Emerson Smith’s Colonist in Bondage: White Servitude and Convict Labor in America, 1607-1776, Edmund Morgan’s American, American Freedom, David W. Galenson’s White Servitude in Colonial America, Anthony Parent Jr.’s Foul Means, Don Jordon and Michael Walsh’s White Cargo, and others studies of American serfdom. Secondly, considering that there is currently no other documentary history in print for other colonies in British America, Escaping Servitude hopes to inspire similar histories for eighteenth-century Maryland, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and the northern colonies. Less known are the life stories of indentures who absconded in other parts of British America. Finally, in its explication of the lives of the unfree, Escaping Servitude hopes to expand the current academic discourse regarding the history of slavery and race.