Black Runaways in Eighteenth-Century Britain

Abstract

Co-authored by Stephen Mullen, Nelson Mundell and Simon P. Newman, this chapter uses the story of Jamie Montgomery, an enslaved runaway in Scotland, to illustrate the presence and predicament of escaped slaves in Britain during the eighteenth century, the majority of whom were male and either children or young adults (often trusted domestic servants). The authors draw upon the frequency of ‘for sale’ and escaped slave notices in newspapers to help document the routineness of slave trafficking within Britain from both the colonies and directly from Africa. They outline the life of Montgomery who was sold in Virginia to a Scottish merchant and sent to Scotland to apprentice as a joiner with an eye toward future resale at a profit. Several years later, after a taste of free life as a skilled carpenter and church member, he escaped while in the process of being forcibly returned to America. Montgomery was captured with the help of an escaped slave newspaper ad and died in jail. Like many young slaves separated from family and a black community and sent to work in the British Isles, the authors explain that relief from harsh plantation life and a chance at greater economic and political opportunities was tempered by the constant threat that they could easily be returned.