The Enslaved Declare Themselves Free

Communication between those being enslaved on one plantation to the next was remarkedly fast and accurate. Enslaved people developed a trusty and vigorous regional communication network that surprised many of their masters. Using different methods depending on the local environment, the enslaved discovered local news and events as fast as white settlers not on plantations.

Overheard conversations in the big house were the number one source of new information. House servants and valets did not have free roam of the house, but dinner conversations and random encounters during the day’s chores offered many slices of life that were quickly circulated among the other enslaved on the plantation. Political discussions, plantation affairs, war news, and other proclamations or laws were grist for the gossip that extended to the field works and beyond.

Masters often shared the enslaved with other plantations whose special needs for journeyman carpenters, work crews, and other trades were another communication vehicle. These workers carried news, warnings, and personal messages from one plantation to the next.

Unbeknownst by many plantation owners, paths through forests offered some enslaved the ability to reach nearby hubs. Silently sneaking out after dark to reach family or friends at other enslaved work camps, individuals would gamble that they could arrive back before dawn for the chance of desired interaction.

Waggoneers, drivers, and field hands were a popular way of finding out information at other agricultural junctions. Plantations were not self-contained and masters would often need to share supplies with another. The drivers of the wagons and the workhands that labored could be couriers of not only goods and services but also the latest news heard at the dinner table or the field. If the travel took them to ports or county seats, the volume of information they could return with could be considerable.

Kinship networks across the plantations offered a more personal process of communication. Families who were often separated and couples who might see themselves as married presented the opportunity for more news. Aunts, uncles, cousins, and spouses kept each other informed were trusted and reliable sources of information.

Sunday was one day that most enslaved had to themselves and although the religious aspect of life was predominately the center of their enjoyment, visits from other plantations often took place outside the purview of master and overseer. Nighttime prayer services and funerals could be the cover for communication that was independent of the primary activities.

Most masters were oblivious to their workers’ ability to communicate through such media as quilts, spirituals, and work songs that carried messages to others enslaved. Warnings about slave patrols and messaging to identify meeting locations were a foreign language to most slaveowners.

Finally, runaways provided some of the most gruesome and dangerous activities for the enslaved. Knowing that the chance of success was very slight, runaways became bold carriers of news from distant farms. The mere presence of an escapee showed others that freedom was a possibility, and the news from another estate was eagerly consumed by the protectors of those brave individuals. If more than one escaped, the master was delirious to find out what happened to the partner, not for information but for the fear that bad news from one plantation to another would be spread. More than any other person, the escapee was always treated cruelly as an example to others remaining in bondage.

In many ways, the messages passed from one enslaved to another was faster and more accurate than that consumed by virtue of a local newspaper.