Midterm topics:

My midterm topics have been inspired by things I've learned in the readings that I would like to know more about.

My first choice is to study the dynamic of the life of the free slave living in a slave state (such as Linda's grandmother). I would like to know how they were treated by/interacted with whites, what powers they had, and how they interacted with the blacks around them. Could humane treatment be bought with papers or were they still in fear of many of the same abuses of slavery? Ideally I would like to find journals of a free woman and see what she writes about her life. If not, I could look to study someone who wrote about a free woman they knew living in the slave states.

Another possible topic of mine centers around england as a place of refuge for escaped slaves. I would like to know if they really experienced better treatment here and if many slaves desired to go. I want to know how the fugitive slave fit into english society and how she was treated. Ideally I would like to find a source from a slave woman who escaped to england and wrote of her experiences. I would also like to find literature concerning the treatment and status of fugitive slaves from an english person's point of view.