Escaping Servitude: A Documentary History of Runaway Servants in Eighteenth-Century Virginiais 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 Servitudes 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 Servitudecomplements Abbot Emerson SmithsColonist in Bondage: White Servitude and Convict Labor in America, 1607-1776, Edmund MorgansAmerican, American Freedom, David W. GalensonsWhite Servitude in Colonial America, Anthony Parent Jr.sFoul Means, Don Jordon and Michael WalshsWhite Cargo, and others studies ofAmerican serfdom. Secondly, considering that there is currently no other documentary history in print for other colonies in British America,Escaping Servitudehopes 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.

Antonio T. Bly is associate professor of history at Appalachian State University.

Tamia Haygood is a graduate teaching fellow at Appalachian State University.

Contents
Part 1Half Slave, Half Free: A Study of the Runaway Servant in Eighteenth-Century Virginia
Part 2A Documentary History
Notice on Notices
Note on Newspapers
Virginia Notices, 1738-1789
Glossary
Appendix AReprints
Appendix BTables
Appendix BImages
Appendix CJames Revel,The Poor Unhappy Transported Felon's Sorrowful Account of His Fourteen Years Transportation, at Virginia, in America. In Six Parts.
Subject Index
Name Index
About the Authors