Tacking towards freedom? Bringing journeys out of slavery into dialogue with contemporary migration

Antislavery actors evoke the history of transatlantic slave trade in campaigns to mobilise action address suffering experienced by contemporary migrants described as ‘victims trafficking’. That framing has been picked up state who present measures supress unauthorised migration per se necessary protect from a ‘modern-day trade’. Yet parallel between trafficking and is undermined fact that people today are ‘trafficked’, much those ‘smuggled’, actively wish travel do so hope moving, they will secure greater freedoms. This article therefore asks whether there similarities journeys enslaved fled slavery Atlantic World, if so, why. Bringing data historical sources on flight into dialogue with sub-Saharan African Europe Brazil, it identifies number experiential parallels, argues for concerned migrants’ rights, people’s fugitivity potentially offers more fruitful point comparison than does trade.