The Writings of Thomas Smallwood
Penguin Publishing Group · Paperback · February 10, 2026
A long-forgotten Black abolitionist who liberated captive workers by the wagonload, brilliantly satirized slaveholders, and gave the underground railroad its name.
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- Who it’s for
- Thomas Smallwood’s writings bring together escape dispatches, satire of enslavers, and a prescient memoir on race.
- Themes
- Abolition and resistance, Slavery and escape, Race and power
- Genres
- Black & African American Lives, Black History, 19th-Century America
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A long-forgotten Black abolitionist who liberated captive workers by the wagonload, brilliantly satirized slaveholders, and gave the underground railroad its name. Thomas Smallwood was a shoemaker by day and an organizer of mass escapes from slavery by night.
Continue reading
Twelve years after purchasing his freedom from slavery, Smallwood took to the press and, over a 16-month stretch starting in 1842, pseudonymously published newspaper dispatches ridiculing and excoriating enslavers by name and offering sobering reflections on the depravity of slavery. With the pen that Smallwood called his “lash,” he leveraged mockery to flip the oppressive racial power structure of America. These dispatches, in which Smallwood was the first to use "underground railroad" in print, are the only accounts of escapes to be published in real time, imbuing Smallwood’s subversive wit with urgency and defiance. His 1851 memoir is prescient on the United States' tormented entanglement with race.
Smallwood’s Dispatches
Thomas Smallwood’s writings bring together escape dispatches, satire of enslavers, and a prescient memoir on race.
Come here for
- Smallwood’s newspaper dispatches published over 16 months starting in 1842
- His 1851 memoir and reflections on race
Expect
- Dispatches that first used “underground railroad” in print
- Smallwood’s mockery and reflections on slavery
Where it sits
| Black & African American Lives | 76% |
|---|---|
| 19th-Century America | 43% |
| Black History | 27% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Black & African American Lives
- Civil War Era
- Slavery Studies
- Authors
- Thomas Smallwood, Scott Shane
- Publisher
- Penguin Publishing Group
- Published
- February 10, 2026
- Format
- Paperback
- Theme
- Abolition and resistance · Slavery and escape · Race and power
- Reading lane
- Black & African American Lives