Slave flight in the antebellum South did not always coincide with the political geography of freedom. Indeed, spaces and places within the South attracted the largest number of fugitive slaves, especially southern cities, where runaway slaves attempted to pass for free blacks. Disguising themselves within the slaveholding states rather than risk long-distance flight attempts to formally free territories such as the northern US, Canada, and Mexico, fugitive slaves in southern cities attempted to escape slavery by crafting clandestine lives for themselves in what I am calling “informal” freedom—a freedom that did not exist on paper and had no legal underpinnings, but that existed in practice, in the shadows. This article briefly examines the experiences of fugitive slaves who fled to southern cities in the antebellum period (roughly 1800–1860). It touches upon themes such as the motivations for fleeing to urban areas, the networks that facilitated such flight attempts, and, most importantly, the lot of runaway slaves after arrival in urban areas.

中文翻译：

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“城市难民：美国南部的逃亡奴隶和非正式自由空间”

战前南部的奴隶逃亡并不总是与自由的政治地理相吻合。事实上，南方的空间和地方吸引了最多的逃亡奴隶，尤其是南方城市，逃亡的奴隶试图通过那里的自由黑人。在蓄奴州内伪装自己，而不是冒险长途飞行尝试正式解放美国北部、加拿大和墨西哥等领土，南部城市的逃亡奴隶试图通过为自己打造秘密生活来逃避奴隶制，我称之为“非正式的”自由——一种不存在于纸面上且没有法律基础的自由，但在实践中存在于阴影中。本文简要考察了在战前时期（大约 1800-1860 年）逃往南方城市的逃亡奴隶的经历。