Flee North

A Forgotten Hero and the Fight for Freedom in Slavery's Borderland

By: Scott Shane

Narrated by: Rhett Samuel Price

Length: 10 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

Long-listed, New Yorker Best Books of the Year, 2023

Long-listed, Amazon.com Best Books of the Year, 2023

Long-listed, Barnes and Noble Best New Books of the Year 2023

A riveting account of the extraordinary abolitionist, liberator, and writer Thomas Smallwood, who bought his own freedom, led hundreds out of slavery, and named the underground railroad, from Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist, Scott Shane. Flee North tells the story for the first time of an American hero all but lost to history.

Born into slavery, by the 1840s Thomas Smallwood was free, self-educated, and working as a shoemaker a short walk from the U.S. Capitol. He recruited a young white activist, Charles Torrey, and together they began to organize mass escapes from Washington, Baltimore, and surrounding counties to freedom in the north.

They were racing against an implacable enemy: men like Hope Slatter, the region’s leading slave trader, part of a lucrative industry that would tear one million enslaved people from their families and sell them to the brutal cotton and sugar plantations of the deep south.

Men, women, and children in imminent danger of being sold south turned to Smallwood, who risked his own freedom to battle what he called “the most inhuman system that ever blackened the pages of history.” And he documented the escapes in satirical newspaper columns, mocking the slaveholders, the slave traders and the police who worked for them.

At a time when Americans are rediscovering a tragic and cruel history and struggling anew with the legacy of white supremacy, this Flee North—the first to tell the extraordinary story of Smallwood—offers complicated heroes, genuine villains, and a powerful narrative set in cities still plagued by shocking racial inequity today.

A Macmillan Audio production from Celadon Books.

©2023 Scott Shane (P)2023 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“In his riveting new book, Scott Shane for the first time recounts the extraordinary story of Thomas Smallwood, a former slave who purchased his own freedom and worked as a shoemaker in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol. As a free man, Smallwood heroically led hundreds of enslaved people out of bondage, then mocked their former owners in sharply written dispatches in the abolitionist press. It was Smallwood, Shane argues convincingly, who had the distinction of naming the 'underground railroad.' Flee North restores to American history one of the most daring African American abolitionists, author of a long-neglected slave narrative, who not only courageously fought slavery but brilliantly satirized it.”—Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University

"Written in an engaging, dynamic style, Flee North will captivate readers who want to know how people like Smallwood succeeded in duping countless enslavers. The fascinating tale of a swashbuckling abolitionist and his white activist companion will make readers wish for a film adaptation. This book is a tale of triumph in the face of unspeakable adversity. Highly recommended for both public and academic libraries."—Booklist, STARRED Review

"Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Shane (Objective Troy) brings to vivid life the exploits of abolitionist Thomas Smallwood in this exhilarating account. [...] This astonishing and propulsive narrative rights a historical wrong by returning Smallwood to prominence. It’s an absolute must-read."—Publishers Weekly, STARRED Review

Powerful documentation of one story in the enduring history of US racism

Thomas Smallwood, lost to history, has been revived. His bravery, commitment and devilish sense of humor come to life in this book. He is one of the countless hero’s and heroines who have struggled through the past 400 years to make the evil of slavery, followed by relentless racism, in the United States clear to all. The work goes on.