In 1822, a man escapes his captor. He runs through the hemp he was forced to plow, sweating bullets in the suffocating August heat. He flies through the tall grass like the Kentucky mosquitos that suck his blood dry. He can’t look back, and he can’t think of who he is leaving behind. Acres flash by his eyes in seconds, and his heart beats out of his chest like a pounding drum. His name is Hope. Hope is documented in the Bullitt Family Papers very few times, and half of these mentions are related to his self-liberation from enslavement. Other references are found in the last will and testament of his enslaver and a handful of hiring contracts loaning out Hope’s labor to other enslavers in Kentucky.
