History Minute (061): Debunking "Slaves liked being slaves."

People are inclined to think that blacks accepted slavery, Zinn observes, and this is supposedly proven by claiming that during the Civil War, when there were abundant opportunities to escape, most enslaved people stayed on the plantation.  

However, the data show otherwise: 500,000 ran away — or about 20% of all — and this is made all the more significant in that they would face great difficulty knowing where to go to find safety and how to survive.

Read more: 

A People's History of the United States

Howard Zinn