How James Smith Took His Freedom Back

illustration of james smith
Via Wikimedia Commons
Briona Lamback
August 17, 2023

Christmas day had come, and while holiday cheer filled the air, James Smith and his comrades, Zip and Lorenzo, were plotting. It was time to escape their hellish plantation. But they had a problem: an icy river.

By Spring, it was warm enough to escape. Before setting off, they sat beneath a large tree at the home of a local doctor who moonlighted as a fortune teller. 

Doc spread his deck out, revealing Smith’s fate: “You are going to run away; I see that you will have good luck; you will go clear: you will reach the free country in safety.”

Taking his word, they hit the path toward freedom again, canoeing up the Chesapeake Bay from Virginia to Maryland.

The plan was to walk to Delaware, but a childhood leg injury meant Smith couldn’t keep up.

With an empty belly and anxious heart, Smith continued in spite of his injury. A voice told him, “Keep on towards freedom, and if you are taken, let it be heading towards freedom.” Eventually he walked his way to freedom.

Like Smith, we must know that reimagining the world our people deserve to live in won’t come easy, but we must resist and persist, one step at a time.

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