Enslaved persons may have appeared in newspapers for many reasons, but by far the most common was when they sought freedom. Enslavers at the time would have placed advertisements offering a monetary reward, hoping for the successful capture and return of the enslaved person. Today, we recognize these individuals not as runaways or fugitives as they were known at the time, but as freedom seekers. Newspaper advertisements placed by enslavers are often one of the richest sources for details about an individual enslaved person.
Newspaper advertisements would often include a lengthy physical description of the freedom seeker, including what they were wearing when they left, as well as personal details such as height, weight, age, any injuries, scars, or other distinct physical markings. The advertisements also frequently included mention of the person’s personality traits, any special skills they had, where they were born, other names they might have gone by, and suspicions of where the person may have been attempting to go.
We must also remember to be cautious when reading these advertisements as historical sources. It is important to remember who wrote them – enslavers – and why – to attempt to capture and return the human beings they considered to be their property. The details included in the advertisements were therefore chosen to paint the freedom seeker in a negative light, relying on stereotypes. Some stereotypes depicted an individual’s personality as violent, or used descriptions that do not match how an individual would self-identify. We must not, therefore, take every detail at face value without first considering the sources and biases of that information or description and why it would be included in the advertisement. That being said – these sources remain rich in detail and often offer the only personalized individual accounts of an enslaved person. They can be both useful and interesting sources of information.
It is almost always easier to find details about the lives of enslavers than the persons they enslaved. Many times, if they are mentioned at all, an enslaved person is reduced to their first name and possibly their age. Yet, because of the detailed physical descriptions found in these types of advertisements we uncover more about the enslaved person than we might ever uncover about their enslaver. For example, we know from the ad below that Joe was 5’ 2”, lame, had round shoulders, and was missing a finger. Using the descriptions of his clothing, we can paint a fuller picture. Set against the possibility of his strolling around Philadelphia, we are now able to conjure a scene highlighting Joe. In contrast, we know nothing about what his enslaver, Hu. Cousty, looked like.
Although written because the individual had committed the ultimate act of resistance – running away to seek their freedom – these ads were also filled with evidence of small acts of resistance to the system of enslavement. For example, this advertisement highlights that the man in question called himself Jacob rather than Wetheridge, the name presumably given to him by his enslaver. In choosing his own name, Jacob was resisting the system of enslavement that gives naming choice to an enslaver rather than one’s parents. He was also giving himself a name that makes it more likely that he will be able to pass as a free man. Wetheridge appears to be a place-based name originating from an English village. Place based names were a common convention among names given by enslavers to their enslaved persons, whereas an anglicized name, such as Jacob, was not immediately identifiable as a name of an enslaved person.1 Small acts of theft, an extra set of clothes, blankets, or in Jacob’s case, a silver watch were often commonly mentioned in these ads. In many cases, such theft would allow the person to disguise themselves and thus have a better chance of reaching the freedom they sought. Other times, the theft may have been a means of economic support for the freedom seeker, as they could attempt to trade or sell the stolen goods.
Beyond the detailed and interesting stories of individuals, newspaper advertisements for freedom seekers can also help us understand broader patterns. For example, we can begin to understand eighteenth century conceptions of race through the language used in newspaper advertisements. These two advertisements, posted mere weeks apart in 1748, both refer to different men as “Spanish Negro”, a term that does not have a clear twenty-first century equivalent. Other advertisements refer to the complexion of the freedom seeker in terms ranging from “yellowish” to “very dark”; terms which were often used to describe the appearance of individuals of various European origins who were escaping terms of indentured servitude. These overlapping and various uses of language to describe an individual’s appearance or racial origin reflect changing and complex attitudes towards race. It is also important to remember that the language used to describe race in these sources is the language of the enslaver, not how an individual self-identified. As the ad below indicates for example, John disliked being called a “negroe” and likely would not have identified himself as such. Unfortunately, no record seems to exist of how John perceived himself and what terms he used instead.
The additional note at the end of the second advertisement also provides a glimpse into the abolition work of the time. The author of the ad, Sophia Maybury, expressed concern that there were people sheltering Ned and Mona. The author seems to be addressing individual people rather than a known group. While Pennsylvania law at the time did include a fine of 30 shillings a day for harboring an enslaved person, Sophia Mayburry, offered the additional incentive of a reward for anyone not just returning Ned and Mona, but for turning in anyone who aided them. Those who provided drink and shelter to Ned, Mona, and other freedom seekers in the early eighteenth century were a precursor to the much larger, and often more organized networks of safe houses that came to be known as the Underground Railroad in the nineteenth century. Local advertisements seem to feature men seeking freedom more often than women. This is likely due to a combination of there being more men than women enslaved in the area. In the Perkiomen Valley region there was a prevalence of male labor at the iron forges, and men were more likely to be assigned labor away from the household, thus providing more opportunities to escape unnoticed. There are still a number of notable stories of women seeking freedom as well, such as this advertisement for Beck, who escaped while on leave at the May Fair with some assistance.
Unfortunately, the brief snapshot provided in an advertisement is often all we know of the freedom seeker’s story. Sometimes the same advertisement will be printed in the paper for several weeks or months, with each passing week indicating a better chance that the person mentioned in it was able to reach a permanent state of freedom, but we often have no real confirmation of this and can merely hope. Those who did find freedom were likely to relocate and change their names so it can be difficult to put together the pieces of the same person’s story even when they do appear in other records later.
Newspaper advertisements that depict enslaved persons can be found in nearly every newspaper published in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Many scholars have worked to collect these advertisements and make them searchable for other researchers.
Databases include this set, freely accessible through newspapers.com (https://go.newspapers.com/enslavement-articles/), and this collection from the Library of Congress (https://guides.loc.gov/chronicling-america-fugitive-slave-ads/introduction). Many other ads likely have not been tagged and identified in digitized newspaper collections or remain in papers that are not digitally available.
Research Associate Emma Hartman shares information from her work uncovering the lives of African Americans living in the Perkiomen Valley in the 1700s and early 1800s. This project of the Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center in partnership with the Historical Society of Montgomery County is funded by the Philadelphia Funder Collaborative for the Semiquincentennial.
1 Benson, Susan. “Injurious Names: Naming, Disavowal, and Recuperation in Contexts of Slavery and Emancipation.” In The Anthropology of Names and Naming. Edited by Gabriele vom Bruck and Barbara Bodenhorn, 178–199. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006.