Flights from Slavery in Revolutionary Maryland, 1745-1800

"Flights from Slavery in Revolutionary Maryland" contains information about the escape attempts of 1242 unique enslaved persons who resided in Maryland between 1745 and 1800; it also incorporates information regarding the enslavers who attempted to remand these escapees to slavery by placing fugitive slave advertisements in newspapers. Principally focusing on Maryland, the dataset derives most of its information from digitized copies of the Maryland Gazette—the state’s only newspaper during the period under review—which were originally published between 1745 and 1800. The dataset also makes robust use of the Maryland State Archives’ Legacy of Slavery in Maryland runaway slave database, which acts as a digital repository for fugitive advertisements for those fleeing slavery in Maryland and includes advertisements from papers including the Gazette. "Flights from Slavery in Revolutionary Maryland" attempts to capture the multifaceted nature of enslaved resistance alongside the humanity of the enslaved individuals in question.