In the past, many people were ‘unfree’ in the sense that their movement was restricted, and migration without permission was regarded and recorded as 'escape'. Even though such escape was common in the past, historical studies mostly neglect this form of migration. This article examines escape in historical East Asia, focusing on the influence of household context and individual characteristics on the chances of escape, taking advantage of large-scale individual panel datasets from three adjacent ‘unfree’ populations from northeast China, southeast Korea and northeast Japan in the 18th and 19th centuries. We identify similar temporal, spatial and age patterns of escape, and also similar patterns of associations between chances of escape and household context. In particular, the presence of dependent children and elderly in the household makes individuals less likely to escape. Other patterns of association also highlight the importance of gender and social class. Despite significant differences in political, social and community contexts across these three East Asian populations, the empirical comparisons suggest important commonalities in terms of motivation driven by shared understandings of obligation to others.