Queendom 👑,

This month’s book of the month is in honor of women’s history month, and of course, black history. I was watching the movie, Harriet, about Harriet Tubman, and was inspired by Harriet & Marie Buchanan’s storyline. Although Marie Buchanan, played by Janelle Monáe, was a fictional character it got me thinking about the stories of the women who escaped slavery, as well as, those who assisted the women who had escaped from slavery by introducing them to new life in the North.

The author Karen Cook Bell is a Professor of History and the Wilson H. Elkins Endowed Professor at Bowie State University. Her areas of specialization include slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and women’s history.

Her non-fictional book “Running From Bondage” mirrors the work of William Still, who in the movie Harriet & in real life, collected slave stories and records of those searching for freedom on the Underground Railroad during & after The Revolutionary War. Karen’s work focuses specifically on the stories of the women during this time.

Synopsis:

“Running from Bondage tells the compelling stories of enslaved women, who comprised one-third of all runaways, and the ways in which they fled or attempted to flee bondage during and after the Revolutionary War. Karen Cook Bell’s enlightening and original contribution to the study of slave resistance in eighteenth-century America explores the individual and collective lives of these women and girls of diverse circumstances, while also providing details about what led them to escape. She demonstrates that there were in fact two wars being waged during the Revolutionary Era: a political revolution for independence from Great Britain and a social revolution for emancipation and equality in which Black women played an active role. Running from Bondage broadens and complicates how we study and teach this momentous event, one that emphasizes the chances taken by these ‘Black founding mothers’ and the important contributions they made to the cause of liberty.”