Skip to main content
Home Slave Stampedes on the Southern Borderlands

Search form

Toggle menu
  • Home
  • About
    • Kentucky
    • Missouri
  • Publications
  • Browse
    • Escapes
    • Places
    • Documents
    • Images
  • Search
  • Timeline
  • Maps
  • Videos
  • Project Blog

1855 Norfolk and Portsmouth VA Stampede

VA
Beginning Date
Tuesday, November 20, 1855
Starting Point
Norfolk, VA
Route
Mid Points
Unknown
End Point
Unknown
Description

Sometime in mid-November 1855, some 18 enslaved people--both men and women--escaped from Portsmouth and Norfolk, Virginia. Their fate remains unknown, but the escape did prompt concerned slaveholders to contemplate forming a squadron of slave patrolling vessels. 

Escape Attributes
Escape Numbers
18
Outcomes
Outcome
Unknown
Sources
Related Documents
Richmond (VA) Daily Dispatch, "Slave Stampede," November 23, 1855
Alexandria (VA) Gazette, "Slave Stampede," November 26, 1855
Charlotte (NC) Democrat, "A Wholesale Stampede," November 27, 1855
Wilmington (NC) Tri-Weekly Commercial, "Unprecedented Stampede of Slaves," November 27, 1855
Richmond (VA) Dispatch, "Fugitive Slave Police," November 28, 1855
Pittsburgh (PA) Daily Morning Post, "Unprecedented Stampede of Slaves," November 29, 1855
Washington (DC) Tri-Weekly Washington Sentinel, "Fugitive Slave Police," December 1, 1855
Cleveland (OH) Weekly Plain Dealer, "Unprecedented Stampede of Slaves," December 5, 1855
Greensboro (AL) Alabama Beacon, "Slave Stampede in Virginia," December 7, 1855
Winston-Salem (NC) People's Press, "Negro Stealing," December 7, 1855
Richmond (VA) Dispatch, "Coasting Vessels," December 10, 1855
Richmond (VA) Enquirer, "House of Delegates - Bills Passed," March 7, 1856

creative commons icon 2022-23 National Park Service Network to Freedom and House Divided Project at Dickinson College 

NPS LogoHouse Divided Logo

Contact

Director: Matthew Pinsker
House Divided Project
PO Box 1773 / 61 N. West Street
Dickinson College
Carlisle, PA 17013
Email: hdivided@dickinson.edu
Tel: 717-245-1865

sfy39587stp18