The conclusion revisits the book's conceptualization of the geography of freedom in North America. It argues that the main differences between spaces of informal, semi-formal, and formal freedom for fugitive slaves come down to differences in freedom seekers' motivaitons, networks, visibility, and vulnerability. It is clear that runaways’ motivations and expectations of freedom from slavery tended to differ by degrees, and these informed their escape attempts. The networks that facilitated slave flight to all three spaces of freedom also differed by degrees, from family networks in spaces of informal freedom to more organized antislavery networks in spaces of semi-formal and formal freedom. Visibility was an important factor in slave flight. Freedom seekers in the urban South were the most dependent upon developing and cultivating false identities in order to prevent recapture; those who fled beyond the borders did not need to hide their identities at all. Finally, freedom seekers' vulnerability to recapture and reenslavement differed across the continent. Runaways in the urban South were the most vulnerable, whereas those who fled the United States were the least vulnerable.

How was slave flight in North America characterized? How and why did enslaved people flee to—and navigate—different destinations throughout the continent, and to what extent did they succeed in evading recapture and reenslavement? The Introduction lays out overarching questions and purpose. Freedom Seekers examines the experiences of runaways from southern slavery between 1800 and 1860. Taking a continental approach, this study highlights the diversity of slave flight in North America by conceptually dividing the continent into three distinct (and continuously evolving) spaces of freedom for runaway slaves, namely: spaces of informal freedom in the US South, where enslaved people attempted to flee slavery by trying to pass for free; spaces of semi-formal freedom in the Northern United States, where slavery was abolished but where the status of fugitive slaves was contested; and spaces of formal freedom in Canada and Mexico, where slavery was abolished where runaways were considered legally free and safe from reenslavement. The Introduction to this study also positions it within the scholarship on fugitive slaves, explaining its innovative continental perspective and new conceptual approach.

The second chapter delves into slave flight to spaces of informal freedom in the urban South, the most immediate and easily reached destinations for runaways trapped in the second slavery. It considers why enslaved people chose to go to the trouble of fleeing bondage yet remain within the slaveholding states; the networks that helped them do so; the strategies they employed to hide their identities, sustain themselves, and remain at large indefinitely; and the risk they ran of recapture. The actions of these runaways went far beyond mere truancy, as is often suggested in the literature. Many fugitives to urban areas clearly attempted to live their lives there indefinitely. The chapter devotes considerable attention to the importance of family in informing freedom seekers' decisions to remain within the South, even if it meant foregoing more formal freedom in other parts of the continent. It also examines the importance of visibility in runaways' strategies of escape, exploring how they "passed for free" by looking and acting free, procuring false freedom papers and other documentation, and integrating themselves into urban free black communities so as to avoid detection.

The third chapter explores slave flight to spaces of semi-formal freedom in the antebellum North. It analyzes why freedom seekers sought to risk their lives to escape the South rather than flee to nearby spaces of informal freedom; how they did so; their settlement processes; and how they fared in the legal quagmire of rendition and reenslavement. It begins with an examination of enslaved people's perilous northbound journeys, emphasizing the particular reasons some freedom seekers sought free soil and some semblance of legal freedom from slavery. It then delves into refugees' experiences settling in and sustaining themselves in the northern states, with an emphasis on their integration into northern free black communities. The chapter concludes with an extensive discussion of the ambiguous legal status of fugitive slaves in the Northern United States and how conflicts over legal rights and the conditions for rendition developed over time, often stimulating mass civil disobedience to federal fugitive slave laws and de facto protection from reenslavement.

The fourth chapter examines slave flight to spaces of formal freedom in British Canada and Mexico from the 1830s through the 1850s. These two destinations for refugees from American slavery shared important similarities but also differed by degrees. The chapter explores why some enslaved people sought to flee the United States altogether; how they settled into new communities; and the risk of both extradition and illegal recapture by slave catchers and agents from the antebellum South. The chapter is structured thematically, beginning with a comparative examination of the journeys of freedom seekers to both international jurisdictions. The chapter then delves into the settlement experiences of refugees in Canada and Mexico, underscoring the stubborn prejudice with which especially refugees in Canada were confronted, as well as their economic opportunities. The chapter ends with an extensive discussion of the threat of extradition. Both countries refused to sign extradition treaties for fugitive slaves with the United States. In Mexico, however, the threat of reenslavement was higher due to illegal raids and incursions by southern slaveholders into Mexican territory.