Reviews
Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad, edited by Timothy D. Walker (University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, MA, 2021, 248pp, illus, maps, notes, index, isbn 9781-62534-592-9, $27.95pb) When people think of enslaved people escaping to Northern states prior to the Civil War, many likely imagine an elaborate network of operatives guiding fugitives along treacherous overland routes. Sailing to Freedom challenges and complicates these assumptions, arguing persuasively that coastal waterways, sea routes, and maritime networks were vital aids to escape (especially from coastal states in the Deep South), and that many escapes occurred without outside help or organization from Underground Railroad operatives. Sailing to Freedom focuses on two key issues: the relative frequency of saltwater vs. terrestrial escapes to the North, and the extent of unaided escapes as opposed to premeditated, organized escapes aided by Underground Railroad operatives. To discuss these issues, the volume is organized geographically: nine chapters focus on Atlantic seaboard states from South Carolina up to New England, while a tenth chapter summarizes early findings derived from the Freedom on the Move digital database of runaway slave advertisements from around the country. The volume’s primary strengths are its outstanding scholarship and excellent writing. Dr. Walker’s introduction clearly positions the volume within extant scholarship on the Underground Railroad and African American maritime activity in early America. Other scholars contribute strong chapters to the volume. Michael D. Thompson focuses on South Carolina and Charleston; David S. Cecelski examines coastal North Carolina; Cassandra Newby-Alexander writes about Virginia with a special focus on Hampton Roads and Norfolk; Cheryl Janifer LaRoche discusses Maryland and Chesapeake Bay; Mirelle Luecke examines New York City as a fugitive destination; Elysa Engelman discusses fugitives arriving SEA HISTORY 177, WINTER 2021–22
in coastal Eastern Connecticut; Kathryn Grover writes about self-emancipated individuals in Eastern Massachusetts; and Len Travers discusses the experiences of African Americans in the whaling port of New Bedford, Massachusetts, between 1838 and 1845. The volume concludes with Megan Jeffreys’s analysis of data in the Freedom on the Move online database. Because the volume strives to compare terrestrial and waterborne escapes to the North, the volume (as its editor admits) does need to leave out the discussion of escapes from southern Florida and Gulf Coast states. This is one subject that future scholars will hopefully address. Additionally, because the book accommodates individual scholars’ areas of expertise, the chapters can look at dissimilar time periods from the late eighteenth century to the eve of the Civil War, rather than a single historical range. This is not a problem, however. The book argues compellingly and persuasively for the importance—and in some cases, the primacy—of waterborne routes to escapes, the frequency of unpremeditated and unorganized escapes, and the work of untold numbers of people to emancipate themselves. This is an invaluable historical study that is written accessibly for the general reader and college students, and which will prove valuable to scholars for many years to come. David Anderson, PhD Louisville, Kentucky Defending the Arteries of Rebellion: Confederate Naval Operations in the Mississippi River Valley, 1861–1865 by Neil P. Chatelain (Savas Beatie, El Dorado Hills, CA, illus, gloss, biblio, index, notes, isbn 978-1-61121-510-6; $32.95hc) From the first days of the Civil War, the Mississippi River loomed as an important commercial artery for both the North and South. Since the river split the territory of the Confederacy, one of the main
Union strategic objectives called for the seizure of this important maritime thoroughfare, and the Confederate leadership understood it was crucial to defend it. Neil Chatelain’s Defending the Arteries of Rebellion scrutinizes the efforts made by both sides to control this waterway and its tributaries. Chatelain sets out to explore four important issues. He appraises the Confederate navy’s efforts to create a military presence to defend the Mississippi River and its tributaries, and assesses the naval battles that ensued as the Union navy actively pursued control of the river. He also considers the final operations of the war and, lastly, reviews the actions and activity during the war on the lesser streams. Throughout, he illustrates how the Confederacy used a triad of defensive measures to protect this region—small gunboats, fortifications, and torpedoes. This defensive model became less effective as the Union navy brought more force to bear—with the exception of the torpedo (more like a modernday mine), which developed into a dangerous and effective weapon.
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