Much has been written about the Underground Railroad, the incredible network that led many in bondage in the south to freedom in the northern free states. FREEDON SHIP by Marcus Rediker tells of a different story of a route to freedom.

FREEDOM SHIP reveals how crew members, dock workers and even some merchant ship operators collaborated to board and hide salves on merchant ships plying the US Atlantic Coast from South Carolina to Boston. This is the very metrhod taken by Frederick Douglass in his espape from Baltimore.

Thousands of slaves embarked on the treacherous journey over land and local waterways to reach local Atlantic harbors and with stealth find friendlies who would hide them aboard a ship heading north. It was a risky business, so much so that in South Carolina laws were past that crews of merchant ships from the North would be impounded while in the local harbor to prevent them from assisting runaways. Many merchant crews were made up of free blacks from the northern states.

The high risk did not end upon boarding and setting sail. Slave catchers awaited incoming ships from the south at harbors in New York, Boston and New Bedford. However. abolitionists successfully set up dozens of safe houses for escaped slaves, providing food, clothing and in some cases help in moving north to Canada. Some successfully blended into northern society. Others who landed in New Bedford signed up as crew on whaling ships to avoid capture.

A fascinating story of teamwork among like minds that for some successfully thwarted the Fugitive Slave Act and the brutal slave culture.