Resistance in New England Slavery

Resistance in New England Slavery: Venture’s America offers a comprehensive exploration of the diverse methods of resistance employed by enslaved people in New England between 1650 and 1800.

Drawing on an extensive range of archival sources including newspapers, petitions, court records, and enslaved people’s narratives, this book explores how enslaved individuals challenged their bondage and how enslavers and colonial authorities responded, across the colonial and Revolutionary eras. Organized thematically, the book examines key forms of resistance, including violence, running away, freedom suits, manumission, and petitions for abolition. It uniquely examines Native American and African American slavery side by side, demonstrating how Indigenous resistance shaped African American resistance strategies well into the eighteenth century, and further, how resistance shaped the abolition movement.

Ideal for undergraduate and graduate students of slavery, early American history, and the Atlantic world, the volume provides a valuable resource for teaching and research on resistance and abolition.