swamps and backwoods. Even when 

 they possessed the skills necessary for 

 wilderness survival, a hermit's life did 

 not provide access to critical informa- 

 tion about sea traffic or the contacts 

 necessary to reach a ship. As a result, 

 runaways usually had to rely on the 

 complicity of men and women pre- 

 pared to disregard the slave laws. 

 All runaways, but especially those 

 who planned to board a ship, looked 

 to clandestine networks of slaves and 

 free persons. From the vantage point 

 of the state's leaders, those networks 

 remained a dangerous and ephemeral 

 world beyond the edges of their towns 

 and plantations. 



The Great Dismal Swamp and its waterways provided protection and a 



means of communication and mobility for refugee slaves. 

 This is an engraving of African-American workers on the Dismal Swamp 

 Canal from Harper's New Monthly Magazine (May 1860). 



Fugitive slaves found their most 

 important backing from other slaves. 



"The slaves generally know where 

 the runaway is secreted and visit him at 

 night and on Sundays," remembered 

 Nehemiah Caulkins, a white carpenter 

 who closely observed daily life on 

 several rice plantations near Wilming- 

 ton between 1824 and 1835. 



Peter's son Robinson, himself a 

 one-time runaway, remembered the 

 assistance that slaves gave to their 

 fugitive brethren in Wilmington. 



"There was always an understand- 

 ing between the slaves that if one ran 

 away they would put something to eat 

 at a certain place," Robinson recalled in 

 his autobiography. He wrote that the 

 slaves would leave out a mowing 

 scythe for their escaped comrades, 

 replacing the crooked handle with a 

 straight stick to fend off bloodhounds. 



Over weeks, months and even 

 years, slaves supplied refugees with 

 provisions and intelligence to help them 

 elude their pursuers. For this kind of 

 help, fugitive slaves looked most often 

 to family members who remained with 

 their former masters or who had been 

 sold in the vicinity. 



Despite efforts to restrict them, 

 slaves developed ways to communicate 

 and travel. Slave watermen, couriers 

 and draymen traveled widely and could 

 secretly convey messages and goods 

 over long distances. African-Americans 

 also took advantage of limited free time 

 to create cultural and social networks, 

 out of sight of their owners, that linked 

 slaves over a wide territory. 



"Night," recalled Allen Parker of 

 his years in bondage by the Chowan 

 River, "was the slave's holiday." 



Though discovery meant severe 

 punishments, slaves often moved about 

 surreptitiously in the evening hours, 

 visiting friends and family on other 

 plantations, worshiping, courting and 

 trading illicitly. Those nocturnal forays 

 not only sharpened their ability to 

 dodge slave patrols and bloodhounds, 

 but also stretched the boundaries of 

 their bondage and identified blind spots 

 in the vigilance of their owners. Main- 

 taining a liaison between a slave quar- 

 ters and a swamp or forest hideout 

 required the utmost secrecy and en- 

 tailed great risks. But those who 

 colluded with runaways knew how to 

 maneuver along well-worn cracks in 

 slavery's walls. 



Runaway slaves also depended on 



NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1994 



