{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/125036423X?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"125036423X","authors":["Gregory E. O'Malley"],"book_id":"9781250364234","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/the-escapes-of-david-george-9781250364234","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781250364234.jpg?v=7bb981ca67e1a51c","description":"Washington Post 6 Noteworthy Books for February By a prize-winning historian: The dramatic story of a Black man’s relentless search for freedom in Revolutionary-era America When most Americans think of slavery, they do not picture the colonial or revolutionary eras. Yet, in fact, one of six inhabitants of the thirteen original colonies was enslaved. The Escapes of David George: an Odyssey of Slavery, Freedom, and the American Revolution reveals a remarkable, untold experience of the American revolutionary period—a Black man’s quest for the freedom espoused by our Founders, but denied him and other enslaved people. In 1762, at the age of 19, David George escaped from a plantation in Virginia. Running southwest by night, fording rivers and crossing borders, he embarked on a decades-long journey in and out of captivity that spanned multiple colonies and thousands of miles. George lived among White, Black, Creek, and Natchez settlements, fled to the British Army for the promise of liberty, founded what might have been the first Black Baptist church, helped to hack a settlement for refugees out of the Nova Scotia wilderness, and died as a leader of an experimental anti-slavery community in Sierra Leone. Piecing together archival records and David George’s own brief account of his life—the earliest written testimony by a fugitive enslaved person in North America—Gregory O’Malley presents a thrilling narrative and a unique perspective on our nation’s origins, principles, and contradictions.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9781250364234","publication_date":"20260203","publisher":"St. Martin's Press","slug":"the-escapes-of-david-george","subtitle":"An Odyssey of Slavery, Freedom, and the American Revolution","title":"The Escapes of David George"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"HIS036020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Colonial America (to 1775)","score":0.7545,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Revolutionary America (1775-1800)","score":0.7462,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"19th-Century America","score":0.7447,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"HIS036020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Colonial America (to 1775)","score":0.7545,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Revolutionary America (1775-1800)","score":0.7462,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"19th-Century America","score":0.7447,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"BIO002010","confidence_band":"high","label":"Black & African American Lives","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036030","confidence_band":"high","label":"Revolutionary America (1775-1800)","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Colonial America (to 1775)","score":0.7545,"slug":"colonial-america-to-1775"},{"label":"Revolutionary America (1775-1800)","score":0.7462,"slug":"revolutionary-america-1775-1800"},{"label":"19th-Century America","score":0.7447,"slug":"19th-century-america"}],"reader_fit":["For readers interested in Black freedom struggles in Revolutionary-era America","For readers interested in the history of slavery and its legacies"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Simon Schama"],"book_id":"9780060539177","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780060539177.jpg?v=588fd8a676b1db03","score":0.7948,"title":"Rough Crossings","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780060539177"},{"authors":["David W. Blight"],"book_id":"9781416590323","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781416590323.jpg?v=e552e078bd28646e","score":0.7353,"title":"Frederick Douglass","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781416590323"},{"authors":["Ilyon Woo"],"book_id":"9781501191060","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781501191060.jpg?v=f55ef56eb415d8dd","score":0.7343,"title":"Master Slave Husband Wife","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781501191060"},{"authors":["Michael Boulware Moore"],"book_id":"9781250818355","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781250818355.jpg?v=138a27f8368a31a0","score":0.7231,"title":"Freedom on the Sea","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781250818355"},{"authors":["Thomas Smallwood","Scott Shane"],"book_id":"9780143138389","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780143138389.jpg?v=9cf5f24631da2cda","score":0.7161,"title":"The Writings of Thomas Smallwood","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780143138389"},{"authors":["Erica Armstrong Dunbar","Kathleen Van Cleve"],"book_id":"9781534416185","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781534416185.jpg?v=12bdbd4338aaa416","score":0.7124,"title":"Never Caught, the Story of Ona Judge","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781534416185"},{"authors":["David Hackett Fischer"],"book_id":"9781982145095","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781982145095.jpg?v=7abcece6a2d5cd0f","score":0.7096,"title":"African Founders","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781982145095"},{"authors":["Frederick Douglass"],"book_id":"9781625586346","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781625586346.jpg?v=1eefff5f5bf706c0","score":0.7015,"title":"Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781625586346"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:untold story"],"label":"Story","score":0.0863,"slug":"story"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:biography"],"label":"Biography","score":0.0744,"slug":"biography"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: Slavery and the struggle for freedom, Black life in Revolutionary-era America, American ideals and contradictions.","Pacing: mixed tempo with quieter and high-intensity stretches.","Themes: Story, Biography."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.91,"pacing":"mixed","reader_fit":["For readers interested in Black freedom struggles in Revolutionary-era America","For readers interested in the history of slavery and its legacies"],"themes":["Slavery and the struggle for freedom","Black life in Revolutionary-era America","American ideals and contradictions"],"tropes":[]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":15,"goodreads_ratings_count":60,"goodreads_reviews_count":33,"quality_score":0.8824}}