So many similar escape stories exist in the historical record, sometimes with more information available and sometimes less. Large gaps of information remain, but historian Richard Blackett describes many of the most revealing episodes in his seminal work,\u00a0The Captive\u2019s Quest for Freedom: Fugitive Slaves, the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, and the Politics of Slavery<\/em>\u00a0(2018).<\/em>\u00a0Noted historian Eric Foner calls\u00a0Captive’s Quest, <\/em>the\u00a0\u201cmost comprehensive account of the workings of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and opposition to it.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n Blackett spent years meticulously researching the history of the antebellum fugitive crisis for The Captive\u2019s Quest for Freedom, <\/em>even writing in the book\u2019s introduction that \u201cwhen I began I was a father of four; now I am the proud grandfather of six!\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n The sheer volume of Blackett\u2019s research is clear throughout the book, which is organized into chapters based on different border states and the networks of escape that grew from them.<\/p>\n Map of Missouri and Illinois border ca. 1850, courtesy of Cambridge University Press<\/p><\/div>\n The chapter that covers escapes from Missouri, \u201cone of the zones of maximum\u00a0conflict,\u201d mentions dozens of escapes.<\/span>[4]\u00a0<\/a> Most slaves from Missouri sought freedom in Illinois, crossing the border at least initially into a hostile southern region known as Egypt, and then traveling to more welcoming cities further North such as Chicago.[5]<\/a> Blackett explains that attempted escapes involving large groups took place much more frequently in border states such as Missouri. He identifies a total of fourteen antebellum cases of group escapes, also known as slave stampedes, from the state of Missouri.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n Blackett uses the word \u201cstampede\u201d a total of seven times throughout the book. The term is first introduced in the second chapter, which focused on reactions to the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law. \u201cGroup escapes,\u201d Blackett writes, \u201cor what slaveholders took to calling stampedes…increased substantially, accounting for fully 36 percent of the escapes in the 1850s.\u201d[7]<\/a> Other than identifying key individuals credited for directing large amounts of slave stampedes, such as Mary Meachum and the Knights of Liberty, Blackett directs more of his focus on the subject towards the public\u2019s reaction to such stampeding efforts. Blackett repeatedly claims throughout the text that it was particularly these mass escapes which caused much of the slaveholders\u2019 discontent in the years before the Civil War, writing that \u201cgroup escapes also suggested a level of planning and coordination that raised the levels of anxiety among slaveholders.\u201d [8]<\/a><\/p>\n Slaveholders\u2019 anxiety was a huge factor in the increasing tensions between North and South, argues Blackett.\u00a0Because of this, Blackett claims, every single escape, whether successful or not and whether group or individual, had the \u201cpotential to create deep political crises in the communities in which it occurred.\u201d [10]<\/a> Overall, the picture painted by The Captive\u2019s Quest for Freedom<\/em> reveals a country in deep political and social turmoil, with fugitive slaves and anxiety over slave stampedes at the heart of the crisis.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> R.J.M. Blackett. The Captive\u2019s Quest for Freedom: Fugitive Slaves, the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, and the Politics of Slavery <\/em>(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 143.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Eric Foner, review of The Captive’s Quest for<\/em> Freedom, cover, Blackett,\u00a0Captive’s Quest<\/em>.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Blackett, \u00a0xv.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Blackett, 139.<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Blackett, 150.<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Blackett,\u00a0139.<\/p>\n [7]<\/a> Blackett, 50.<\/p>\n [8]<\/a> Blackett, 393.<\/p>\n![\"map\"](\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2018\/09\/map-300x243.jpg\")