BFW Revisited: Running from Bondage in the American Revolution

About this episode

The episode discusses the stories of enslaved women who self-emancipated during the American Revolution, focusing on Sarah's journey and the impact of Lord Dunmore's proclamation.

She fled on horseback in the thick of war. Her six-year-old son rode with her. The white tailor at her side would pass, when anyone asked, as her husband. Her name was Sarah. She was one of tens of thousands of enslaved people who self-emancipated during the American Revolution, and one of the many women earlier histories barely noticed. In this Revisited episode, Karen Cook-Bell, author of Running from Bondage: Enslaved Women and the Remarkable Fight for Freedom in Revolutionary America, recovers their stories. We learn how Lord Dunmore's 1775 proclamation reshaped the landscape of resistance, why motherhood drove women to flee rather than keeping them in place, and what creative, subversive strategies they used to slip out of bondage and into freedom. This is the companion conversation to Ep. 440's exploration of Jefferson's cut grievance. If Brooke Newman gave us the view from the throne, Karen Cook-Bell gives us the view from the ground. And it changes what the proclamations look like. Karen's Website | Book |Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/322RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 137: The Washingtons' Runaway Slave, Ona Judge🎧 Episode 157: The Revolution's…

People in this episode

Host: Liz Covart

Guest: Karen Cook-Bell

Topics covered

• enslavement
• self-emancipation
• American Revolution
• women's history
• resistance
• motherhood

Keywords

• enslaved women
• self-emancipation
• American Revolution
• Lord Dunmore
• motherhood
• resistance
• freedom

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Ben Franklin's World, Lord Dunmore

Books & works: Running from Bondage: Enslaved Women and the Remarkable Fight for Freedom in Revolutionary America

More episodes of Ben Franklin's World

• BFW Revisited: Reading the Declaration of Independence for Equality · June 9, 2026 · 51 min
• 442 Everyday Military Life in the American Revolution · June 2, 2026 · 1h 24m
• BFW Revisited: Valley Forge · May 26, 2026 · 1h 8m
• 441 The Escapes of David George · May 19, 2026 · 1h 16m
• 440 Jefferson's Cut Grievance and the British Monarchy's Role in Slavery · May 5, 2026 · 1h 17m
• BFW Revisited: Whose Fourth of July? · April 28, 2026 · 1h 15m