What is the price of freedom? Is it worth the cost if failure means a return to slavery or death? This was a question many enslaved women asked themselves as they struggled with leaving behind family and friends to gain freedom. During the American Revolution, one-third of fugitives were enslaved women. Their desire for freedom did not originate with the American Revolution; however, the Revolution amplified their quest for freedom. Enslaved women’s desire for freedom for themselves and their children propelled them to flee slavery during the Revolutionary War, a time when lack of oversight and opportunity from the presence of British troops created spaces for them to invoke the same philosophical arguments of liberty that white revolutionaries made in their own fierce struggle against oppression. Thousands of women of diverse circumstances escaped bondage despite their status as mothers and wives. In fact, motherhood, freedom, love and family propelled black women to escape bondage during the Revolutionary Era, a time when, as historian Matthew Spooner argues, the chaos of war made flight possible due to the break-down of oversight and colonial authority. The stories of Margaret, Jenny, and Bett reveal the precariousness of their lived experiences and their resolve for freedom.
Margaret escaped slavery twice in Baltimore, Maryland; first in 1770, and again in 1773. In her first escape, she wore men’s clothing and sought to conceal her identity by dressing as a waiting boy to John Chambers, an escaped English convict servant. Margaret sought to escape by passing as both white and male performing fugitivity in a way that Ellen Craft, another escaped slave, would do decades later.
Margaret’s actions indicate that she knew her “soul value.” According to historian Daina Ramey Berry, “soul value” refers to “an intangible marker that defied monetization yet spoke to the spirit and soul” of who she was as a human being. Soul value “represented the self-worth of enslaved people.” For some, like Margaret, this meant that she would not comply with slavery. The escape of Margaret and other bondwomen during the Revolutionary Era constituted a major refutation of slavery. The American Revolution, which inspired enslaved and free African Americans to claim greater rights for themselves, created both psychological and physical freedom for those who “pretended to be free” or who simply fled to create their own liberty. Women ran away more frequently during the Revolutionary Era than at any time before or after the war due to the breakdown of oversight and state authority. In addition to Margaret, Sarah, a pregnant woman who changed her name to Rachel, ran away with her six-year-old son, Bob. Rachel’s husband had joined the British Army and she intended to “pass herself as a free woman.”