A Southern Underground Railroad - (Early American Places) by Paul M Pressly

About the Book

"Despite its apparent isolation as an older region of the country, the Southeast provided a vital connecting link between the Black self-emancipation that occurred during the American Revolution and the growth of the Underground Railroad in the final years of the antebellum period. From the beginning of the revolutionary war to the eve of the First Seminole War in 1817, hundreds and eventually several thousand Africans and African Americans in Georgia, and to a lesser extent South Carolina, crossed the borders and boundaries that separated the Lowcountry from the British and Spanish in coastal Florida and from the Seminole and Creek people in the vast interior of the Southeast. Even in times of peace, there remained a steady flow of individuals moving south and southwest, reflecting the aspirations of a captive people. A Southern Underground Railroad constitutes a powerful counter-narrative in American history, a tale of how enslaved men and women found freedom and human dignity not in Jefferson's "Empire of Liberty" but outside the expanding boundaries of the United States. It is a potent reminder of the strength of Black resistance in the post-revolutionary South and the ability of this community to influence the balance of power in a contested region. Paul M. Pressly's research shows that their movement across borders was an integral part of the sustained struggle for dominance in the Southeast not only among the Great Powers but also among the many different racial, ethnic, and religious groups that inhabited the region and contended for control"--

Book Synopsis

Despite its apparent isolation as an older region of the country, the Southeast provided a vital connecting link between the Black self-emancipation that occurred during the American Revolution and the growth of the Underground Railroad in the final years of the antebellum period. From the beginning of the revolutionary war to the eve of the First Seminole War in 1817, hundreds and eventually several thousand Africans and African Americans in Georgia, and to a lesser extent South Carolina, crossed the borders and boundaries that separated the Lowcountry from the British and Spanish in coastal Florida and from the Seminole and Creek people in the vast interior of the Southeast. Even in times of peace, there remained a steady flow of individuals moving south and southwest, reflecting the aspirations of a captive people.

A Southern Underground Railroad constitutes a powerful counter-narrative in American history, a tale of how enslaved men and women found freedom and human dignity not in Jefferson's "Empire of Liberty" but outside the expanding boundaries of the United States. It is a potent reminder of the strength of Black resistance in the post-revolutionary South and the ability of this community to influence the balance of power in a contested region. Paul M. Pressly's research shows that their movement across borders was an integral part of the sustained struggle for dominance in the Southeast not only among the Great Powers but also among the many different racial, ethnic, and religious groups that inhabited the region and contended for control.

Review Quotes

His highly readable prose gives life to many Black individuals who escaped enslavement, and who assisted hundreds of others in their quests for liberty, both by sea and by land.--Staff Report "Savannah Business Journal"

Pressly's research explores how and why the Southeast, especially the Georgia coast, provided a vital connecting link between the Black self-emancipation that occurred during the American Revolution and the emergence of the Underground Railroad in the final years of the antebellum period. . . . Rich and gripping.--Sylviane A. Diouf "author of Slavery's Exiles: The Story of the American Maroons"

A Southern Underground Railroad is a major contribution to the history of the lives of first and second generation of enslaved people within the context of U.S. expansion in the early national period.--Ousmane Power-Greene "coeditor of In Search of Liberty: African American Internationalism in the Nineteenth-Century Atlantic World"

A Southern Underground Railroad offers a new Atlantic World perspective and a much-needed corrective to earlier publications. It should appeal to both popular and scholarly readers interested in early North American and African American history and the history of slavery.--Jane G. Landers "author of Atlantic Creoles in the Age of Revolutions"

About the Author

PAUL M. PRESSLY is director of the Ossabaw Island Education Alliance, a partnership between the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, and the Ossabaw Island Foundation.