book history. historical geographer. griefblogger.
This essay assesses relevant sources in the account of Ann Clarke’s escape from slavery with a view to examining how the political landscape of the Kansas Territory impeded or facilitated her escape. In identifying the zones of containment, concealment, and wayfinding this paper will illuminate how enslaved freedom seekers and their abolitionist allies circumvented the punitive landscape of Kansas Territory.
For Moses Grandy, his end in telling his story of enslavement was to reveal the horrors of slavery as he experienced it as well as use the proceeds of the sale of his book to purchase his enslaved children’s freedom who had been sold further south into Louisiana from the Virginia/North Carolina border.
Born in 1786 on a farm owned by enslaver William Grandy in Camden County, North Carolina Moses Grandy learned as a child how difficult life was for an enslaved person. Of his early life Grandy writes,
Upon visiting the site I am impressed by its design. It is not cluttered or busy and the layout lends itself to the subject at hand in a manner that signals the gravity of the content contained. A difficult balance for projects dealing with traumatic records.
Very nicely done.
