Learn about the lives of runaway slaves with The Geography of Slavery
September 8, 2008
In November of 1770, a woman who gave her name as Betty was committed to the James City, Virginia prison as a runaway slave. Described in an advertisement as “a Congo new Negro woman,” Betty was said to be “very big with child” and either unable or unwilling to tell the name of the slave holder who owned her. True stories like Betty’s help students understand history as a compelling story about real people, and it’s easy to see how her attempt to find freedom for herself and her unborn child could get students interested and asking questions that will lead to an in-depth understanding of American slavery.
The Geography of Slavery in Virginia, a project from the Virginia Center for Digital History at the University of Virginia, presents the full text and images from more than 4000 advertisements for runaway slaves and servants from Virginia and Maryland newspapers between 1736 and 1803. The site also provides additional primary sources, a bibliography, a glossary of unusual or antiquated terms found in the advertisements, and teaching materials to help teachers make the most of these advertisements.
Students don’t have to sift through all of the ads to find stories like Betty’s or to find patterns in these sources. Want to know more about enslaved people under 18 years of age who were running away to rejoin family? It’s easy to find the 38 such ads in the collection that students could use in their research. The site’s detailed search feature allows students to search the ads based on many different criteria (or combinations of criteria) that are relevant to their own questions. Resources like the Geography of Slavery bring primary research out of the archives and into the classroom — and the search feature allows students to instantly find the sources that will be most useful as they develop original interpretations of the past.
On a related note, for a nineteenth century exploration of slavery using North Carolina newspaper advertisements, see this lesson plan with accompanying primary sources from LEARN North Carolina. -KATHRYN WALBERT
The Geography of Slavery in Virginia
Related Stuff:
Stock up on history resources at the National History Education Clearninghouse
Click Through The Valley of the Shadow
Get Up Close and Personal with the Past at EyeWitness to History
Get Your History Straight from the Source: Making Sense of Evidence
