Study Areas:

Slavery

Anti-Slavery

Free Persons of Color

The Violent Decade

Underground Railroad

US Colored Troops

Civil War

The Year of Jubilee (1863)

May 1820: Eight-year-old Watt runs away again

Four Hundred Dollars Reward
Negro Watt, whom Iately advertised as a runaway, was brought home, and remained some days, when he agian ran away on teh 1st of May. He is about 8 years of age, very black, well grown, rather a long face and legs, and slow in articulation.

I will give the above reward, if taken out of Maryland or the District of Columbia, and one hundred if taken within those limits, on his delivery to me at Leonard Town, St. Mary's county, Md.

H. G. S. Key.
May 5.

Source: National Intelligencer (Washington, DC), Saturday, 29 July 1820.

Editor's Note: The slave holder who placed this ad is Colonel Henry G. S. Key, a cousin of Francis Scott Key. Henry G. S. Key lived in Tudor Hall, in Leonardtown, St. Mary's County. That property is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

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

Support the Afrolumens Project. Buy the books:

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