I was amazed at some of the research she did. She found instances of free blacks who wanted to migrate to the state, but couldn't because of anti-migration laws. Some of these individuals entered the state under the pretense of being slaves, and found individuals who "emancipated" them in the state, thus establishing their residency in an unorthodox manner, and thereby allowing them to remain.

I wonder if FPOC used this strategy elsewhere in the south? I've never heard of anything close to that. I'm familiar with many lawsuits involving the unlawful enslavement of freeborn people, and I've seen cases where FPOC voluntarily entered into slavery, but never saw anyone who pretended to be a slave in order to remain in a state. I imagine such cases would have surfaced in other states when private/personal manumissions were allowed by state legislatures.