Pathways to Freedom

The Great Dismal Swamp lies between Virginia and North Carolina, two states where slavery was a major source of free, profitable labor for European settlers beginning in Virginia in 1619. Ever since slavery began, enslaved peoples tried to find ways to remove themselves from that oppressive state of existence. The Dismal Swamp was home to thick, hard-to-navigate swamp land, panthers, bears, bobcats, snakes, and too many insects to count. European settlers hardly wanted to go in, and some research that I have found suggests that even Native Americans only went into the swamp to hunt. But for some enslaved Africans, the swamp became a home because they knew that it was unlikely that their enslavers would come into the swamp to try to capture them. And while some Africans lived in the swamp, some others ran through it to find freedom on the other side.  These two videos tell the same story in two parts.  The first part tells about the Dismal Swamp and why Africans sought to use it to gain freedom. The second part tells the story of a man who used the swamp to escape to freedom when he was only 14 years old.