Southerners on the Run: Emancipation, Desertion, and the Collapse of the Old South

The Civil War thrust on the roads of the Confederacy multitudes of truants: slaves fleeing their masters, soldiers deserting the army, and refugees retreating in the face of enemy invasion. Flight was a rare common experience in the Confederate South, which cut across race, class, and gender lines. In this talk, Sternhell examines how runaways of all hues shaped the downfall of slavery and the rise of black freedom and how antebellum hierarchies were reconfigured through the physical act of motion.