‘Indubitable signs’: reading silence as text in New England runaway slave advertisements

Abstract

ABSTRACT Whether they demonstrated slaves’ awareness of the politics of their day or recorded aspects of their African past or documented their efforts to preserve family ties, runaway slave advertisements are an invaluable staple of African American Studies. For almost a century, they have revealed complex stories, rich vignettes that exposed varied aspects of black life before emancipation. But perhaps the most nuanced parts of runaway slave advertisements are the multifaceted nature of slave resistance and agency that notices communicated without words. Between the lines of their composition, masters relied on the public's imagination and common sense. Without uttering a single word, slaves made their intentions known; they inadvertently co-authored runaway advertisements. Indeed, absent in current scholarship concerning slavery and resistance is the story of how enslaved African Americans used silence to achieved voice, agency, and text.