The Song Behind Today’s Review Title

[For the past several reviews I’ve picked a song lyric as the title of my review post. It’s been fun looking for songs that reflect the book I’ve read, and I hope it gives you the reader a bit of fun too, and a catchy tune to take with you through your day.]

There wasn’t really any doubt in my mind what song lyrics I should look to for today’s review title. David George, who today’s book is about, leads his Black congregation from enslavement in Revolutionary America all the way to freedom in Sierra Leone, a Rastafarian tale before Ras Tafari was born. The song for today is Exodus, sung by Bob Marley and the Wailers. Listen to the song here and be forewarned - it will play in your head all day.

As I’m sure you know, Bob Marley was a leader in the 1970s in popularizing Reggae, the Jamaican musical form, of which Exodus is an example. Marley was also a Rastafarian, and Marley’s popularity as a singer gave new visibility to the practice of Rastafarianism. The term applies to a Jamaican religious and political movement that blends Protestant Christian and traditional African beliefs. A founding belief of Rastafarians is that Blacks in the Americas are a people in exile who are awaiting their deliverance and return to Zion, the Rasta name for Ethiopia.

Rastafarianism began in the 1930s and takes its name from the notion that the Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie I, who was crowned in 1930, is the second coming of Christ, returned to redeem all Black people. The movement takes its name from the emperor’s pre-coronation name Ras (meaning roughly “Duke” or “Prince”) Tafari (his given name at birth).

While Rastafarianism arrived in the Americas over 100 years after the end of David George’s life in 1810, the journey his life took is perfectly captured in Marley’s song. For his Revolution-era Baptist congregants he was truly “another brother Moses.”

Gregory O’Malley, the author of The Escapes of David George is a professor of history who specializes in slavery and the slave trade in colonial British America and the Caribbean, He weaves a compelling book out of the slim story of the life of David George. That story was told by George himself to a group of London ministers, who then transcribed and published it in 1793. At only eleven pages, it is, the author says, the earliest known firsthand account of a person who had escaped slavery in North America.

It’s a testament to O’Malley’s knowledge and research that he can start from that slim eleven-page story and construct as full and compelling of an account of the life and times of David George as he does. I found this book fascinating and enlightening.

It may not be common knowledge today but at the time of the American Revolution slavery was legal throughout Britain and all of its colonies. Which means that throughout North America from British Canada all the way down south to the British colony in Georgia slavery was practiced. There were no “free states” for an escaped slave to run to. There were no railroads, of course, let alone an Underground Railroad. Slaves had nowhere to run in the colonies.

Beyond that, at the time of the Revolution the thirteen colonies did not in general have white settlement extending as far beyond the coast as their state borders go today. Much of the inland geography was held by indigenous nations, and an enslaved person on their own in an Indian nation’s territory was not assured of freedom. Many tribes had agreements with the colonies to return escaped slaves for a bounty.

In short, an escaped slave in Revolutionary times would do well to go south and west to the interior of the lesser populated colonies like the Carolinas, aiming for the territory between the major white settlements and the indigenous nations, for the best chance at not being captured and sent back to enslavement.

That is exactly what David George did when he escaped the Chappell (pronounced “chapel”) plantation in Virginia, running from his master who he called “a very bad man to the Negroes.” From there he faced a future that involved periods of relative freedom hiding in plain sight, re-enslavement, and more than one escape. All of these adventures led up to his finding a wife, starting a family, and becoming a minister, all while re-enslaved — highly unusual activities for a slave — but made possible because of the lax attitude and unique role his then master had as a go-between of the Creek nation and the British. When the Revolution broke out George risked flight to the British Army with his congregation. The Redcoats publicly offered the promise of freedom to all slaves held by American rebels. Taking advantage of that offer ultimately led to George and his follower’s final home in the “experimental” anti-slavery colony of Sierra Leone in Africa, established by the British in 1787.

O’Malley uses George’s movement through multiple British colonies to examine the attitudes toward and realities of slavery in the British colonies and Revolutionary America. Toward the end of the book, he pays special attention to how our country’s Founding Fathers, many of whom were slave owners themselves, felt toward the institution of slavery. His thoughts here were most interesting, if not necessarily breaking any new ground. To sum it up in a few words, the rationale he surmises they would have used to defend owning slaves falls into the category of “blaming the victim”.

O’Malley also encourages us to think of David George as a “Founding Father” himself, if not of our nation than for our nation’s ideals as stated in the Declaration of Independence. It’s an odd designation and not one I would have chosen, but I do agree with the sentiment behind it. David George was uniquely dedicated to freedom for himself and those around him in a time of great upheaval and rapid change in America. That is certainly a commitment we can all aspire to in today’s unsettled times.

RATING: Four Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

RATING COMMENTS: The compelling true story of a slave during the American Revolution, whose commitment to freedom transformed his life and those of his family and congregation.

WHERE I GOT MY COPY: I read an advanced reviewer’s ebook copy provided by NetGalley and the publisher, St Martin’s Press. The book will go on sale on February 3rd, 2026, and will be available in hardcover and ebook versions. You can pre-purchase from the publisher and major retailers here.