. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. The chance of betrayal or discov- ery always existed, and many runaways never reached a ship or were caught before departure. Punishments included re-enslavement, public whipping, hard duty, deportation into the Deep South and death. C ^^onfronted by so many pit- falls and deterrents, most slaves could only dream of the sea. Like the young Frederick Douglass, himself once a slave in a port town, they may have often mused about the "beautiful ves- sels, robed in white" that might "yet bear me
. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. The chance of betrayal or discov- ery always existed, and many runaways never reached a ship or were caught before departure. Punishments included re-enslavement, public whipping, hard duty, deportation into the Deep South and death. C ^^onfronted by so many pit- falls and deterrents, most slaves could only dream of the sea. Like the young Frederick Douglass, himself once a slave in a port town, they may have often mused about the "beautiful ves- sels, robed in white" that might "yet bear me into ; But throughout the plantation belt of eastern North Carolina, slaves tried to fulfill this dream frequently enough that their owners viewed the ocean as a serious threat and suspected that runaways might sail away. Slave owners' preoccupation with the ocean's proximity often bordered on obsessiveness. Reward posters and newspaper advertisements routinely warned "masters of vessels" not to harbor, employ or carry away their departed workers. State penalties for protecting fugitive slaves were harsh; after 1793, ship captains risked hanging for carrying a runaway out of North Carolina. Slaveholders also threatened seamen with civil prosecution for carrying away their slaves and offered extravagant rewards for information that would identify sailors who helped a slave flee. In February 1838, Gov. Edward Dudley offered up to $500 to anyone who would name the mariner who had taken his runaway slave from Wilmington to Boston. Coastal geography and the willing- ness of many local inhabitants to pro- tect runaways compounded for slaveholders the threat of the open sea and, for slaves, its lure. Remote swamps and dense forests offered ideal haven for runaway slaves who needed a long-term refuge, a point for hasty reconnaissance or a momentary way station en route to a port. Swamps, pocosins, pine savannas or tidal marshes encroached on every settle- ment i
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookcollectionunclibra, booksubjectoceanography
