Trail of Whispers
Time: 1766, ten years before the American Revolution
Place Williamsburg, Virginia
Who: You are a slave

Slaves working in the fieldsYou have been a slave all your life—owned first by Master Burwell who sold you to Master Markham, your present owner. It is harvest time, September. The workload is crushing and your master is harsh.

You decide that you will be a slave no longer. You want your freedom. It is time, you decide, to run away from your master.

Where will you run? Slavery is legal in every one of the thirteen colonies. There is no state or government that will grant you freedom. There is no Underground Railroad yet. And the constable is on the lookout everywhere for someone like you: a slave on the run.

You must go carefully and quietly. You must travel without being noticed. But there are hints that other slaves and free blacks may help you, hide you, and care for you. You must find them by following a Trail of Whispers.

Woods Countryside
Ashby's House Woods Port at Hampton
Carter's Grove Woods

Can you find other slaves to help you before the constable finds you? Where will you run first?

Click on the map to choose your destination, but be careful—the constable is always watching for runaways!


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Copyright 1999 Colonial Williamsburg Foundation