A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Own Narratives of Emancipation by David Blight

David Blight's A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Own Narratives of Emancipation explores the lives of two former slaves, Wallace Turnage and John Washington, as they escaped from slavery and regained their freedom. Both men have been able to provide extraordinary stories about their lives in bondage and their hopes for a better life outside of the confines of their enslavement.

The book begins with an in-depth introduction about the history of slavery in America. It outlines the development of slavery in American history and the experience of African Americans during the slave era. Blight also provides an informative account of the lives of the two men, Wallace Turnage and John Washington, while they were still enslaved.

Turnage is first introduced in the narrative. He was born into a slave family in South Carolina and was stolen away as a young man by a Confederate soldier, who sold him to another slaveholder. Despite attempts to runaway, Turnage was never successful in his flight to freedom. In continuing his story, Blight paints a vivid picture of Turnage’s time in captivity, including his experience working in the coal mines and his escape from enslavement. With his newfound liberation, Turnage eventually was able to reunite with his family members as well as secure a job as a rural postmaster and begin a new life as a free man.

The second narrative features the story of John Washington, another former slave. Washington was born into a well-off free family in Maryland, but when his father died, the family was forced into slavery. Washington was sold into slavery and eventually was moved down to Georgia. Despite multiple escape attempts, Washington was unable to successfully escape and remained a slave until the end of the Civil War. Once emancipated, Washington was able to secure a job as a laborer and eventually moved to Baltimore, where he found a job as a clerk.

In the remainder of the book, Blight masterfully weaves together the narratives of Turnage and Washington to provide an insightful look at the individual lives of these two men. He also includes detailed accounts of their post-emancipation lives in order to demonstrate the struggles and the successes these two men experienced. Blight recounts their diffidences in finding employment and reconciling with family as well as their embrace of freedom and newfound opportunities. Through his narrations, Blight conveys the reality of freedom for Turnage and Washington and brings attention to their victories and losses throughout their lives.

In A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Own Narratives of Emancipation, David Blight provides a comprehensive and detailed account of two separate but similar stories of enslavement and liberation. His masterful narration of both Turner and Washington’s lives brings to life the struggle and triumph that these men endured while achieving freedom. Through Blight’s exploration of these two men’s stories, readers gain a clear understanding and appreciation of the experience of slavers in America and the remarkable optimism and courage required by them to seize liberties denied to them for so long.