This essay situates “The Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, An American Slave” within the political context of the antislavery Free Soil movement, arguing that Bibb’s representations of land and labor reflect the concerns of Free Soil. In particular, it argues that Bibb’s narrative simultaneously critiques Free Soil ideology for its lack of a full-throated call for immediate abolition and its privileging of the white working class over both free and enslaved Black people. In addition, these aspects of Bibb’s Free Soil critique—
both in condemning slavery and in reflexively challenging elements of Free Soil ideology—are more ecological than established Free Soil discourse, reflecting a deeper, more sensitive, and more radical understanding of material interconnection in regards to bodies, means of production, and topographies.