The Captive's Quest for Freedom: Fugitive Slaves, the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, and the Politics of Slavery (Slaveries since Emancipation)

RJM Blackett's new work, the product of over a decade of research, is probably the biggest step forward in the scholarship on slave flight in the 1850s. He demonstrates, across countless examples, how African Americans and their allies disrupted the enforcement of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law. This book will be of interest to advanced students and specialists in the subject.

an inclusiuve, yet scholarly look at the Fugitive Slave Law and its effects

If you are looking for a series of stories about fugitive slaves, organized by region, this book will meet your needs. I wish the author had provided more analysis and had more thoroughly explored how the Fugitive Slave Law's implementation differed from region to region. There are also some inaccuracies or oversimplifications that were at times rather distracting. But if you are primarily concerned with tracking interesting tales about fugitives, you won't be disappointed.