Freedom Ship
The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea
Published on 10. March 2026
Book
Hardback
400 pages
978-1-83674-171-8 (ISBN)
Description
Freedom Ship is a gripping history of stowaway slaves and the vessels that carried them to liberty. Up to 100,000 fugitives successfully fled the horrors of bondage in the American South. Many were ushered clandestinely northwards from safe house to safe house: know as the Underground Railway. Thousands of others escaped not by land, but by sea. Their dramatic tales of whispered conspiracy and billowing sails make Freedom Ship essential and enthralling reading.
Through the intricate riverways of the Carolinas to the banks of the Chesapeake Bay, Freedom Ship traces the freedom seekers who turned their sights to the sea. Sailaways regularly arrived in Britain on cotton ships from New York or Southern ports. For example, Moses Roper, one of the most determined runaways in American history, traveled 350 miles through slave country before eventually taking a ship named the Napoleon to Liverpool. Both legendary abolitionists Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman used the waterfront as a path to freedom.
Marcus Rediker puts his command of archival research on full display in this luminous portrait of the Atlantic seaboard as a place of conspiracy, mutiny and liberation.
PRAISE FOR THE SLAVE SHIP
'I'm rereading The Slave Ship by Marcus Rediker, because it's an absolutely fantastic book'
David Olusoga, Guardian
'A truly magnificent book'
Sunday Telegraph
'A shockingly vivid work . . . from a gifted chronicler of history's lower decks, at home in the unruly Atlantic world of pirates, slavers, sailors, runaways and rebels'
Boyd Tonkin, Independent
Through the intricate riverways of the Carolinas to the banks of the Chesapeake Bay, Freedom Ship traces the freedom seekers who turned their sights to the sea. Sailaways regularly arrived in Britain on cotton ships from New York or Southern ports. For example, Moses Roper, one of the most determined runaways in American history, traveled 350 miles through slave country before eventually taking a ship named the Napoleon to Liverpool. Both legendary abolitionists Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman used the waterfront as a path to freedom.
Marcus Rediker puts his command of archival research on full display in this luminous portrait of the Atlantic seaboard as a place of conspiracy, mutiny and liberation.
PRAISE FOR THE SLAVE SHIP
'I'm rereading The Slave Ship by Marcus Rediker, because it's an absolutely fantastic book'
David Olusoga, Guardian
'A truly magnificent book'
Sunday Telegraph
'A shockingly vivid work . . . from a gifted chronicler of history's lower decks, at home in the unruly Atlantic world of pirates, slavers, sailors, runaways and rebels'
Boyd Tonkin, Independent
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 32 mm
Weight
620 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-83674-171-8 (9781836741718)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
03/2026
Verso Books
€28.99
Available for download
Person
Marcus Rediker is Distinguished Professor of Atlantic History at the University of Pittsburgh. His many books include The Slave Ship, The Amistad Rebellion and The Fearless Benjamin Lay. He has produced a film, Ghosts of Amistad, with director Tony Buba, and written a play, The Return of Benjamin Lay, with playwright Naomi Wallace. He lives in Pittsburgh.