The Escapes of David George: An Odyssey of Slavery, Freedom, and the American Revolution describes the life of a man born enslaved in colonial Virginia, whose repeated escape attempts made his life a remarkable odyssey. He survived enslavement on Virginia and Carolina plantations, stints hiding in backcountry Carolina settlements, captivity in Native American communities, battlefields of the American Revolution, and evacuation as a refugee from the emerging United States. Along the way, he formed a family, became a preacher, and founded the first Black Baptist congregation in what became the United States. His surviving narrative offers the earliest known firsthand account of escaping slavery in North America. And because his struggle against slavery spanned the revolutionary era, his story offers a counterweight to the many biographies of white “founding fathers.” Instead of a fight for political freedom from Britain and monarchy, George’s life reveals a parallel quest for freedom from American slavery. To achieve his independence, George fled the United States in the moment of its creation.

Greg O’Malley is professor and chair in the History Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His first book, Final Passages: The Intercolonial Slave Trade of British America, 1619–1807, received four awards: The America Historical Association’s Forkosch Prize for British history; the AHA’s Rawley Prize for Atlantic history; The Owsley Award from the Southern Historical Association; and the Goveia Prize from the Association of Caribbean Historians. The book examines the network that distributed enslaved
Africans throughout North America and the Caribbean after their survival of the Atlantic crossing. O’Malley is also co-creator (with Alex Borucki) of the Intra-American Slave Trade Database, a free online research tool that documents more than 38,000 human trafficking voyages from one port in the Americas to another. His second book, The Escapes of David George: An Odyssey of Slavery, Freedom, and the American Revolution, was published by St. Martin’s Press in February 2026 and was named one of “ 6 Noteworthy Books for February” by The Washington Post.

Questions? Please contact University Events at specialevents@ucsc.edu.

Slugs and Steins are free informal lectures served up over Zoom. Brought to you by the UC Santa Cruz Alumni Association, each talk will engage one of our favorite professors in discussion with you, the local community of Silicon Valley, and beyond. We will cover everything from organic artichokes to endangered zebras, self-driving cars to Shakespeare. All are welcome. Audience participation is encouraged.

Watch past Slugs and Steins events here.