‘Never be free without trustin’ some person’: networking and buying freedom in the nineteenth-century United States

The strengthening economy of slavery in the nineteenth-century United States further solidified the commodification of the enslaved and their labor. In response to these forces some African-Americans looked to use slavery’s market to buy their freedom. Self-purchase was a crucial path to freedom for African-Americans throughout the nineteenth century. This article examines how African-Americans created economic opportunities, formed networks, and accumulated both social and economic capital as they worked to buy freedom.