Reviews for The Fugitives Gibraltar: Escaping Slaves and Abolitionism in New Bedford, Massachusetts

The average rating for The Fugitives Gibraltar: Escaping Slaves and Abolitionism in New Bedford, Massachusetts based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2021-07-19 00:00:00 Stuart Isacoff The purpose of this book is threefold: to use New Bedford as a specific case study to examine the general historical phenomenon of fugitive slaves, abolitionism, and the experiences of people of color in nineteenth-century America; to explore the means by which faith (in this case, Quakerism) interacted with abolitionist ideals to produce different and competing ideas about freedom at this time; and to reevaluate current historical understanding of level of organization that underpinned the Underground Railroad and other abolitionist movements. In all three of these aims, this is an excellent text, and on a personal level it remains incredible to me that I knew so little about New Bedford growing up, despite living so close to it. This book elegantly makes the case that New Bedford truly can be counted as one of the most unique and historically fascinating cities in America—one that influences the lives and thoughts of many of our most celebrated thinkers—and I remain baffled that in MA high schools we spend so much time talking about Paul Revere and Henry David Thoreau, and so little time talking about Frederic Douglass and the New Bedford society in which he lived.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-08-11 00:00:00 Michael Gaeta This scholarly work examines New Bedford's unique role as America's most diverse and tolerant city --- a diversity born of whaling; a tolerance rooted in its Quaker roots origins. In no other city we're America's blacks as free and as safe as they were in New Bedford.