Rethinking runaways in the British Atlantic world: Britain, the Caribbean, West Africa and North America

This essay utilises four case studies to explore the various causes, experiences and results of escape from slavery in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century British Atlantic World. These are: Johnny Beckles in Barbados, Jamie Montgomery in Scotland, Castle Slaves at Cape Coast Castle on the West African Gold Coast; and Harriet and Beverly Hemings in Virginia. This essay argues that while some sought escape from slavery and even their race, others sought sanctuary within slave society and even on plantations, while others used escape as a means of pressuring for changes in their lives and work as enslaved people