The Runaways of New York

While it is very apparent, surprisingly enough many people don't know the issues of slavery in the Northern states. Specifically New York, it is a part of our American History that was swept under the rug. We then later see the slavery institutions in the South grow and become the poster child for what we know as modern day slavery.

We forget the issues that actually came with slavery in the state of New York as it is depicted to be a very safe and loving environment for slaves at the time when this is very much not the case in the based on the ads made about runaway slaves. As they were all depicted as being in a way fed up with the concept of another human being having control over their life.

There were some cases where some people would actually run away in groups, mostly by foot and most cases of slaves running away seemed to be in the areas of New York City, Long Island and Eastern New Jersey.

There were very few cases where the runaways were women, but the women seemed to somehow manage to stay hidden for long periods of time while on the run this could be due to the lack of "distinctive" features they had in comparison to the men, as they might have been physically abused more than women.

Druing the mid-1700s we see there were also few a few cases where people would travel in groups, while nothing describes the relationships of these fugitives it can be assumed that some of them were family members.

What is trying to be displayed and and explained here, is the issue and frequnecies of runaway slaves in a few select areas. specifically in the general area of New York City, Oyster Bay, Long Island, NY and Rutherford, New Jersey. Due to the common myth that slavery in the Northern states was deemed as more respectful, and humane. Many people undergo the idea that slaves were satisfied with their living situations. When the reality is the slaves in the North were treated as bad as the slaves in the south, this would push the narrative as to why they would run away and seek refuge elsewhere thus explaining all of these runaway ads of slaves fleeing their masters running upstate to be free or other states where there was no slavery during the time period such as Pennsylvania.