Queerness on the Move: Fugitive Tra(ns)versals in U.S. Runaway Slave Advertisements

This paper analyzes pre-Emancipation U.S. runaway slave ads and pickup notices, which documented the unsanctioned mobility of enslaved people in the years preceding the conclusion of the American Civil War. These advertisements, in addition to offering physical descriptions of the self-emancipated, often also offered commentary on fugitives’ diverse gender performances. This paper evaluates these performances using a queer lens, thereby bringing into focus the multiple ways Black gender was created and expressed throughout the era of U.S. chattel slavery.