Study Areas:

Enslavement

Anti-Slavery

19th Century

The Violent Decade

Underground Railroad

US Colored Troops

Civil War

The Year of Jubilee (1863)

May 1806: Fifty-year-old Jack is still missing from Charles County, Maryland after a year

Runaway Negro Jack.
Ran away from the subscriber, living in Pomonky Neck, Charles County, Maryland, about two miles below Mount Vernon, a Negro Man, named Jack, about 50 years of age, his voice is loud, but speaks with ease to himself--he is very black, both of his shins are of a purple color, and extend 5 or 6 inches in length and about one inch broad, occasioned by sitting too near the fire; there is a burn on the back of one of his hands, but don't prevent the full use of it.

Jack came from Guinea when about 12 or 13 years old. I don't know anything that would make a stranger suspect Jack's elopement, sooner than that of calling himself a Baptist and being fond of argument.

Whoever brings home the said negro or secures him in jail, so that I get him again, shall be entitled to 20 Dollars if 20 miles from home; if 30 miles, 30 Dollars, and if 50 miles, 40 Dollars, and reasonable expences paid by

Richard Brandt.
May 26.

N. B. The above Negro Jack eloped from me better than twelve months ago, and was bro't home by one of Jude Washington's overseers; and on the 15th of June last left me the second time.

Source: Alexandria Daily Advertiser (Alexandria, VA), Monday, 26 May 1806.

Covering the history of African Americans in central Pennsylvania from the colonial era through the Civil War.

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The Year of Jubilee, Volume One: Men of God, Volume Two: Men of Muscle