I was unaware that the sea was used as an escape route by many enslaved people, both before and during the Civil War. This book primarily covers the pre war period. The author obviously did a tremendous amount of research. The final 25% of the ebook consisted of end notes and references. There were many examples of incredible perseverance and courage - by enslaved people, abolitionists, ship captains and crews. I was particularly intrigued by the story of the woman who hid from her lecherous owner for 7 years (she pretended to have run away, but was really hidden in a house) and finally managed to get on a ship headed North. The chapter on Frederick Douglass also had details that were new to me. He was an expert caulker in the Baltimore shipyard and he made several attempts to escape by sea.

While the book is informative, I found the organization of the book a little haphazard. The unevenness may be partially attributable to the difficulty in obtaining full stories on people who were trying to escape notice, often changed their names and did not leave written records. So some stories contained a lot of details, while others were brief.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

This work is an important addition to scholarship done on abolition and enslaved people's escape to freedom in the United States. It focuses on escapes by water: ocean, rivers and streams. Other works focus on escapes by land but even many of these were partly by water which is mentioned but rarely analyzed.

Rediker obviously did a great deal of research and provides plenty of footnotes. It was easy to read; you did not have to be a scholar to understand or to appreciate this work. Anyone can marvel at the courage, adaptability and intelligence necessary of the enslaved person to escape by water. There were many accounts that fill the book.

But Rediker went beyond this to analyze the nature of ports, the seapersons, and the people who lived there which have been a source of spreading ideas, resistance to authority and freedom from times of antiquity. He particularly brought to light the work of Blacks, freed and enslaved, who helped others escape, on their journeys with supplies and hiding places, getting off boats alluding those who sought to capture them, and then with resources to set up new lives. Vigilante Committees were established to physically prevent enslaved people from being recaptured or forcibly removing them boats.

There was plenty of other information too that helped filled in the picture of the abolition movement and enslaved people's escapes that have been neglected or ignored with the focus on the land. He highlighted some individuals, most that may have not been heard of even amongst those who studied this area, who helped hundreds and even thousands of people.

I did find some of the flow a bit rough when it went from short escape account to account without much analysis. At the same time this wasn't a fictional narrative where segues are important. It was historical non-fiction. It filled in a gap in scholarship that I didn't realize was missing but that anyone could find informative. It was more than informative; it was hopeful because most of these escapes required a network of support, big or small. People were willing to help others even if it meant loss of wealth, imprisonment, torture and death. Maybe we can learn something from them and apply it to present day.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I like reading books where I have someone to root for. In Marcus Rediker's Freedom Ship, I got plenty of them. Rediker focuses on the maritime flights from slavery in the years right before the Civil War. The first thing you notice about the book is how richly researched and sourced it is. Finding stories on escaped slaves is extremely hard because many of them knew documentation could mean the end for them or anyone who followed behind them. Rediker even tells the story of an enraged Frederick Douglass lambasting an escaped slave who chronicled his method of escape and thus making it impossible to be used again. Needless to say, the research can be thin.

Rediker does an admirable job taking numerous different accounts and forming them to a cohesive book. There are some disjointed sections. For instance, earlier chapters look at a particular aspect of the escape like the free ports these ships would land at. These chapters have multiple stories of escape. Later chapters focus on one particular person to round out the narrative. All of the stories are interesting regardless, but it does feel like two books in one at times. The later chapters are a bit more engaging since you get more time with one person and can get a better sense of them and the trials they have been through.

This is a solid book which should be great for most readers and I definitely recommend it especially for people interested in the Civil War era.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Viking Books.)

This was a amazing history nonfiction book, it had that feel that I was looking for and had that research element that I was looking for. Marcus Rediker wrote this perfectly and I learned about what was going on in this time-period.