I want us to study the history of resistance to slave catchers right now. I want us to study how slave catchers worked, how they were sanctioned, who paid them, and why they did what they did, right now. I want us to study the hyperlocal and networked ways slave catchers were impeded. Right now. - ThreadSky

sjjphd.bsky.social • 3 days ago

I want us to study the history of resistance to slave catchers right now. I want us to study how slave catchers worked, how they were sanctioned, who paid them, and why they did what they did, right now. I want us to study the hyperlocal and networked ways slave catchers were impeded. Right now.

Comments

blissb33.bsky.social•3 days ago

Any book recommendations?

deirdreassenza.bsky.social•3 days ago

Seconded. Heartbreakingly and terrifyingly

tornadobunnyaurora.bsky.social•3 days ago

Thirded, it needs to be thoroughly studied

gaildrakes.bsky.social•3 days ago

It has been! The challenge is to get the word out - and for folks to have the time/inclination to read…

tornadobunnyaurora.bsky.social•3 days ago

It is so gut wrenching to think people were paid to catch slaves , and many of these slaves catchers harmed the slaves. Roots by Alex Haley mentions instances of slave catchers harming slaves they caught.

catzillasue.bsky.social•2 days ago

Can you do a thread on it for us?

freckledfaceninja.bsky.social•1 day ago

📌

quaxquax.bsky.social•3 days ago

For one thing I think US citizens need to organize to make sure that children of undocumented immigrants can get to and back from school safely.

belsheart.bsky.social•3 days ago

Really good idea

nameisparadise.bsky.social•3 days ago

📌

tyrosinetek.bsky.social•3 days ago

This book covers the topic of slave catchers in the context of collective action and protest such as how little proof was actually required to identify free men as escapees.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Defense_of_Looting

tawnywilson.bsky.social•3 days ago

The Underground Railroad in southeastern Iowa.
https://lewelling.org/about

himham.bsky.social•2 days ago

Been preparing for months

cherylrofer.bsky.social•3 days ago

Give us a reference? A link?

katebaldwin.bsky.social•3 days ago

I would recommend The Captive’s Quest For Freedom by RJM Blackett. It has lots of detail on Fugitive Slave laws & many inspiring stories of committees and groups formed in free cities to block the attempts of slave-catchers.

yoursinegritude.bsky.social•3 days ago

Others will likely add more links. Here is a start of information.
https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/slave-catchers-slave-resisters/

yoursinegritude.bsky.social•3 days ago

Also, a bit of American History I don’t think is taught often enough in middle and high schools history classes. https://www.thenation.com/article/society/christiana-resistance-fugitive-slaves/

sjjphd.bsky.social•3 days ago

Adding

yoursinegritude.bsky.social•3 days ago

This will be a good information thread to get people thinking about what’s going to be necessary right here and now. Lord knows I’m tired, and until I see some other demographics of Americans out in the streets, first, I’m inclined to stay in the house for right now.

sjjphd.bsky.social•3 days ago

Read about the ways underground railroad was kept covert, read slave narratives, read about abolition, it's all there. Starters are the book The Kidnapping Club by Johnathan Daniel Wells, listen to @chenjerai.bsky.social's podcast Empire City. Listen to contemporary abolitionists.

mtnsnark.bsky.social•3 days ago

Ordered from my small area bookstore. Thank you, had not heard of this book.

rkobell.bsky.social•3 days ago

Absolutely the Kidnapping Club. All I read now are books about slavery, segregation, and zoning.

paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com•3 days ago

Thanks for these. I haven't heard of The Kidnapping Club.

historycounts.bsky.social•3 days ago

I highly recommend "The Kidnapping Club." You can't put it down and it is chock full of important stories.

dkeller.bsky.social•3 days ago

https://www.californialawreview.org/print/resistance-lawyering

the-goddess-speaks.bsky.social•3 days ago

https://slavery.princeton.edu/stories/strategies-for-escape#:~:text=Many%20fugitives%20were%20well%20prepared,in%20early%20November.%5B17%5D

warrenwp.bsky.social•3 days ago

Especially that last one, where can we start? Is this "de-arresting" and the like?

detryckvondoom.bsky.social•3 days ago

Yes we’re going to have to start doing this.

newneck.bsky.social•3 days ago

📌

historianheather.bsky.social•3 days ago

Yes. The kidnapping Club by Jon Wells

terminator2030.bsky.social•2 days ago

Excellent suggestion. Many people need to be educated on these matters...

pjdesno.bsky.social•3 days ago

The main ICE headquarters for Boston is in Burlington near the mall. There must be some way to keep an eye on it.

phaedra.bsky.social•3 days ago

Not all the answers, but ch2 is a worthwhile read on the topic: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wanted-rachel-hall/1112734763

phaedra.bsky.social•2 days ago

Since some seemed into that book, fyi: Hall also has a related and inisghtful book on the cultural politics of performing transparency for airport security: https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-transparent-traveler

lyonsmusic.bsky.social•2 days ago

This is very helpful to my research thank you

yvonnedyrda.bsky.social•3 days ago

aplev.bsky.social•3 days ago

📌

sioflynn.bsky.social•3 days ago

Agree.
I think too of @ruha9.bsky.social new Jim Code & carceral techno science and @isabelwilkerson.bsky.social Caste

the-white-rose.bsky.social•3 days ago

I feel like I know a bit about this already, but I probably don’t.

notquietmodemd.bsky.social•3 days ago

The past is instructive but Underground Railroads for today must defeat the pervasive nature of modern surveillance & geolocation.
For example, googling “how Tesla vandals were caught is highly instructive about what not to do. YouTube ex spec ops teach how to evade detection urban environment

notquietmodemd.bsky.social•3 days ago

https://youtu.be/_f-0GRismLg?si=2f_KmdDy6N5OEMCl
Garand Thumb was a SERE specialist and TACP in U.S. Air Force.
This is an example.
What’s not covered is secure comms, building org structure w/ compartmentalization, logistics… that’s ex green beret stuff.
I hope this helps in theoretical design for academic purposes..

porthos84.bsky.social•3 days ago

Deal. I’ll check what my local library has tomorrow.

katelynstarrpdx.bsky.social•3 days ago

Thank you so much for this thread.

c0unt3rf31t.bsky.social•3 days ago

📌

democrafthtx.bsky.social•3 days ago

In the 19th century they euphemistically called it black birding and it is how Andrew Jackson paid for the Hermitage

detryckvondoom.bsky.social•3 days ago

Also, if you can safely own and regularly train with one…

Maybe get a gun.

jeansand.bsky.social•2 days ago

You're working on the assumption that the people & circumstances are the same. They're not. We've refined our processes.

nathanimal.bsky.social•3 days ago

Known by their modern name: police officers.

boldlyblue.bsky.social•3 days ago

#NeverForget

lyonsmusic.bsky.social•2 days ago

Not far from us. 🕯️⭐️

chrissmithmuso.bsky.social•3 days ago

Not scholarly history, but climax of GM Fraser's strong (but flawed) "Flashman" historical novel is fictionalized source for HB Stowe's denouement to UTC, in which young Abe Lincoln confronts slave catchers come over the Ohio. It's powerful:

https://bookreadfree.com/376464/9260152

mistiraine.bsky.social•3 days ago

AMAZING LINK!! TYVM!

chrissmithmuso.bsky.social•3 days ago

Buck was mouthing at him, red-faced and furious, but Lincoln went on in the same hard voice.

"So am I, Buck. And more — for the benefit of any shirt-tail chawbacon with a big mouth, I'm a who's-yar boy from Indiana myself, and I've put down better men than you just by spitting teeth at them." 1/2

chrissmithmuso.bsky.social•3 days ago

"If you doubt it, come ahead! You want these people-you're going to take them?"

He gestured towards Cassy.

"All right, Buck — you try it. Just — try it."

chrissmithmuso.bsky.social•3 days ago

The rest of the world decided that Abraham Lincoln was a great orator after his speech at Gettysburg. I realised it much earlier, when I heard him laying it over that gun-carrying bearded ruffian who was breathing brimstone at him.

chrissmithmuso.bsky.social•3 days ago

I couldn't see Lincoln's face, but I'll never forget that big gangling body in the long coat that didn't quite fit, towering in the centre of the hall, with the big hands motionless at his sides.

chrissmithmuso.bsky.social•3 days ago

God knows how he had the nerve, with six armed men in front of him. But when I think back to it, and hear that hard, rasping drawl sounding in my memory, and remember the force in those eyes, I wonder how Buck had the nerve to stand up in front of him, either.

natematias.bsky.social•3 days ago

Yep. Earlier this year, I rode my bike out to the site of the Jerry Rescue in Syracuse

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Rescue

natematias.bsky.social•3 days ago

Here's the monument in Clinton Square

desqatarian.bsky.social•2 days ago

👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

lyonsmusic.bsky.social•2 days ago

Wow. This history is undertold, how extensive these slave catchers would go. I hadn’t realized how far North they went?? I think we really need to attack the legacy of the Daughters of the American Confederacy and how they campaigned to erase this history.

grolaw-me.bsky.social•3 days ago

Best book I know of the history of the Slave Patrols.

#SlavePatrols
#ForcedToServe
#SallyEHadden
#ExcellentWork
#OriginalResearch

cmcanning.bsky.social•3 days ago

I want to read and teach this work.

acadiaediting.bsky.social•3 days ago

I worry that they will set up one of their tip lines and have regular people report their neighbors: for being trans, for speaking against the 🍊, for anything they don’t like.

kcottle.bsky.social•3 days ago

There is already one set up at the Department of Education.

kcottle.bsky.social•3 days ago

http://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-launches-end-dei-portal

acadiaediting.bsky.social•2 days ago

Yup. There have been several. I wouldn’t be surprised if they did it for regular people to turn in their neighbors.

alexip718.com•3 days ago

Two observations:
1. Republicans want to bring back a zombie version of the Fugitive Slave Act to target women seeking abortions and trans people
2. By abducting Tufts grad student Rumeysa Ozturk from the quiet streets of Somerville, the Trump admin may have just had their Anthony Burns moment

jhalp2.bsky.social•3 days ago

One can only hope, at this point.

darcyjae.bsky.social•3 days ago

For those who may not be aware: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Burns

cclaremdmph.bsky.social•1 day ago

📌

dmmason647.bsky.social•3 days ago

Here’s a good history of NYC’s officially sanctioned slave catchers. https://www.bookpage.com/reviews/25668-jonathan-daniel-wells-kidnapping-club-nonfiction/

keelohfox.bsky.social•3 days ago

Do those records exist? Not the slave catcher tactics/operations — those definitely exist. But do the records of successful resistance tactics to slave catchers exist?

sjjphd.bsky.social•3 days ago

Really? Are you aware that countless escaped slaves and abolitionists wrote their own detailed narratives and generations of American historians further documented cases of successful resistance?

mistiraine.bsky.social•3 days ago

We're asking b/c our gen didn't have the internet or social media. There's droves of fake shit out there & we are asking for recommendations to prevent wasting time on low quality books. We WANT to educate ourselves & help. I'm capturing everything recommended, but we want more.

suzannelane.bsky.social•3 days ago

There are lots of slave narratives. My favorite is Henry Bibb’s, because he was so smart & strategic. He escaped multiple times, but kept going back to try to free his family. & Josiah Henson who decided his “facts,” when asked in court, were his private property that he didn’t have to give away.

mistiraine.bsky.social•3 days ago

Thank you! Snagged! And someone else put up a link for free book reading!! Omg thank you ALLLL!!

keelohfox.bsky.social•3 days ago

Of course I’m not. I was educated in the 90s and early 00s at schools where teachers taught the “states rights” narrative about the Civil War. I’ve already followed all the links in the replies. I want more!

mkverson.bsky.social•3 days ago

📌 reading list

joekatz45.bsky.social•3 days ago

Recommendations beyond "The War Before The War"?

lfschleusener.bsky.social•3 days ago

https://www.sealpress.com/titles/kellie-carter-jackson/we-refuse/9781541602908/

sjjphd.bsky.social•3 days ago

Starters here though folks have crowdsourced through the thread

joekatz45.bsky.social•2 days ago

Wonderful, thank you!

lyonsmusic.bsky.social•2 days ago

occidentalop.bsky.social•3 days ago

IMO this was a pretty good book about that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_Caught

mistiraine.bsky.social•3 days ago

Ty!! I'm screen grabbing all these books being shown!

songstars.bsky.social•2 days ago

📌

sjjphd.bsky.social•3 days ago

Incredible book!

gaildrakes.bsky.social•3 days ago

And there is a kids edition!

We went on a Revolutionary War walking tour and that was one of the texts that my kids used to school the tour guide!

Teach the babies! ✊🏾

lee-in-iowa.bsky.social•3 days ago

Resistance to slave catchers involved first, blanketing towns with posters, warning people they had been spotted. Second, hiding the self-emancipated people in homes, barns, tunnels, & shops.

And if anyone was being dragged away, large crowds formed to overwhelm the thieves & free their hostages.

benbennybee.bsky.social•3 days ago

Working together. The answer is always found in communities working together to protect each other.

lee-in-iowa.bsky.social•3 days ago

People in the crowds—mobs, if you will—who were spiriting away a captive would change jackets and hats with the person in the midst of the crowd, then transport them away.

Do all these things. Because we have paid people thieves abroad again and they must be stopped.

nakiajpnw.bsky.social•3 days ago

Been on it for four years, but will step it up for you.

desqatarian.bsky.social•2 days ago

📌

desqatarian.bsky.social•2 days ago

Ok in addition to using https://bookshop.org to benefit local and minority owned bookshops, TIL they sell ebooks and have a free ebook reader!!! And ditch Goodreads (amazon) for StoryGraph. Woohoo!! https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bookshop-org-ebooks/id6465290096

ohsowhat.bsky.social•3 days ago

Yes, this is exactly right.

Also, all the Nazi resisters across Europe.

Recent and impactful movie about that https://www.imdb.com/title/tt23782584/

heavy-grasshopper.bsky.social•3 days ago

Amen. I've been thinking a lot about the Underground Railroad the past few months.

lbrass3.bsky.social•3 days ago

📌

calixthe.blue-ocean.social•3 days ago

I hate that we are here and have to learn this.
From @sjjphd.bsky.social :
https://bsky.app/profile/sjjphd.bsky.social/post/3llcwjy5njs2y

https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/jonathan-daniel-wells/the-kidnapping-club/9781645037118/?lens=bold-type-books

https://crooked.com/podcast-series/empirecity/

From @bunkunin.bsky.social :
https://truthout.org/audio/our-power-is-where-we-choose-one-another-abolitionists-discuss-our-moment/

#BlackSky #Resist

mjjoy.bsky.social•3 days ago

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/30576/pg30576-images.html

seahawkslover.bsky.social•2 days ago

The General Strike!
Read about it, sign the strike card, pass it on (on all your socials, word-of-mouth, everywhere!).

Follow @generalstrikeus.bsky.social for updates!

https://generalstrikeus.com

mhairiforrest.bsky.social•3 days ago

A story that happened in Glasgow just a few years ago keeps coming to mind.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/may/13/glasgow-residents-surround-and-block-immigration-van-from-leaving-street

jhalp2.bsky.social•3 days ago

This is astounding!! And exactly apropo to what happened in Somerville! THIS should have been the response. No one knew!

terminator2030.bsky.social•2 days ago

I love the Brits because they know how to deal with fascists and their wanna be Gestapo scumbags. No "papers please" bullshit on these islands. The weather is a bit rubbish and the roads are narrow, I am happy to put up with that than the fascism in Trump's America.

wishda.bsky.social•2 days ago

They don’t need papers in the UK. CCTV tracks everyone the second they step out the front door.

The Murdoch Empire is what gave the U.S. the shove into the abyss, and you lot are one step behind.

mhairiforrest.bsky.social•3 days ago

Empire City Podcast by @chenjerai.bsky.social where he discusses the origins of the NYPD also is relevant. https://crooked.com/podcast-series/empirecity/

rkobell.bsky.social•3 days ago

This absolutely is great.

itsnotuitsme1911.bsky.social•2 days ago

Listening now…

rkobell.bsky.social•2 days ago

It is so good I am going to listen again.

mhairiforrest.bsky.social•2 days ago

I learned so much from that podcast.

wondwritworld.bsky.social•3 days ago

Hear! Here!

shelliblu.bsky.social•3 days ago

Kidnapping of human beings.

rkobell.bsky.social•3 days ago

I am doing a lot of this for my own book research, but it is also very appropriate for the moment.

rkobell.bsky.social•3 days ago

I am here for this. Stealing Freedom on the Mason-Dixon Line (Milt Diggins); Bloody Dawn: The Christiana Riot and Resistance; The Ledger and the Chain; Stolen, by @rickbell.bsky.social. So many more. Much of it happened right here - Maryland.

mistiraine.bsky.social•3 days ago

THANK YOU!!

mahapat.bsky.social•3 days ago

📌

songstars.bsky.social•2 days ago

📌

lyonsmusic.bsky.social•2 days ago

Im in Chester Co. I picked this book up. I’m looking at Abolition History related to the AME Church specifically a historic AME Church in our community. These were lighthouses for freedom seekers and protection against slave catchers

rkobell.bsky.social•2 days ago

That's really interesting. This is where the Civil War really began - on the Md-Pa border.

https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/western-maryland/edward-gorsuch-civil-war-maryland-history-EYUQZVJUOZCRHO6ZK4TP6T3OTE/

oraclestwin.bsky.social•2 days ago

We need a new underground.

caplucy.bsky.social•3 days ago

Where to begin?

historyenthusiast.bsky.social•3 days ago

I have done some study of this myself, on an alleged fugitive slave in Kansas.

themarkfather.bsky.social•3 days ago

That's a fantastic idea, but isn't part of the problem that the courts are not really functional right now, meaning, of course, that they are being openly ignored and defied? I never thought I would see the day, but it seems that extralegal remedies may be the only ones available anymore.

archaeoscape.bsky.social•3 days ago

So true. My scope is limited but most books about the Christiana Resistance will give some good ideas. And of course works by William Still!

ecologyelise.bsky.social•3 days ago

📌

smaher24.bsky.social•2 days ago

Brilliant! Perfect connection - US History teachers could easily set students loose on Anthony Burns, Thomas Sims, Shadrach Minkins, the Jerry Rescue and the Christiana resistance, the McClintock Riot.

john614.bsky.social•2 days ago

I am a modern day abolitionist. I am really good at busting sex and labor traffickers.

pegdif58.bsky.social•2 days ago

Good idea

pnutsmama.bsky.social•3 days ago

i mean!! the railroad was underground because you couldn’t trust ANYONE. many of the homes etc used around here were primarily quakers. and, idk, we don’t seem to have any moral compass or code as a society, now that we’ve tossed religion and humanism aside.

finchfrii.bsky.social•3 days ago

📌

buffkitton.bsky.social•3 days ago

pretty sure they are just called police now

authorwinifred.bsky.social•3 days ago

There's a reason I've been sprinkling marronage into the world for the last 18 months or so.

whatsarasaid.bsky.social•3 days ago

When they taught us that being good citizens meant hitting the slave catchers with an empty musket if you run out of bullets, we were being prepared:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/349686.The_Town_That_Started_the_Civil_War

4th grade social studies was based on this & I don’t want these people to haunt me for failing to meet their mark.

lyonsmusic.bsky.social•2 days ago

Interesting I’ll take a look. So this history was taught early in your school system?

scohoe.bsky.social•3 days ago

what's a book to read first?

420eggman69.bsky.social•3 days ago

anishgirl.bsky.social•3 days ago

Yes, I thought that watching the video, why aren’t people blocking that van?

olivesided.bsky.social•3 days ago

https://apnews.com/article/tufts-student-detained-massachusetts-immigration-6c3978da98a8d0f39ab311e092ffd892

criminalerin.bsky.social•3 days ago

Getting ripped off the sidewalk by random guys in normal clothes into unmarked vehicles can't happen in a country where police aren't ever allowed to do it never mind trained & encouraged to do it maybe thousands of times a day

sjjphd.bsky.social•3 days ago

Right like wait until people find out what was happening to the kids who got stopped and frisked

noveltry.bsky.social•3 days ago

Exactly. And let's remember who was president 5 years ago when protestors were kidnapped off the streets.
https://www.npr.org/2020/07/17/892277592/federal-officers-use-unmarked-vehicles-to-grab-protesters-in-portland

spotonthesun.bsky.social•2 days ago

Yes❣️

sjjphd.bsky.social•3 days ago

the past is not even past and whatnot

profmarylewis.bsky.social•3 days ago

"Then and now coexist; we are coeval with the dead."
- Saidiya Hartman, "The Time of Slavery."

mjjoy.bsky.social•3 days ago

Just across from Detroit..https://magazine.utoronto.ca/research-ideas/culture-society/underground-railroad-museum-bryan-walls-john-freeman-historic-site/