Slaveryto
freedom
Harrisburg on the eve of Civil War
Study Areas
Slave Traders Franklin & Armfield
Advertisement to locate kidnapper
Alexandria, January 26, 1834
Stop the Kidnapper.
Fifty Dollars Reward.On the night of the 12 inst. James M. Welch, alias Patrick Welch, late of Fauquier County, Va., took from the possession of William Greer, of said County, a negro boy, and carried him to the District of Columbia, there sold him for the sum of $275, and converted it to his own use. Said Welch is about 5 feet 10 inches high, between 25 and 30 years of age, light hair, fair skin, (rather inclined to be freckled,) thin visage, spare form, and a blacksmith by trade. One-half of the above reward will be given for the apprehension and confinement of the thief, in or out of the State, so that he can be brought to justice, or the entire sum of $50 for the thief and the boy. He has doubtless made his escape to the West.
Franklin & Armfield.
Jan 25.
Source: Daily National Intelligencer (Washington, D.C.), Wednesday, 5 February 1834.
Editor's note: The constant demand for enslaved persons, and competition among slave dealers, made slave trading firms likely outlets for kidnappers who abducted free African Americans as well as enslaved Blacks, and sold them to the firms as their own property. In the advertisement above, Franklin and Armfield are attempting to locate the man who sold a young male slave to them for $275 whom they later determined had been kidnapped from Fauquier County farmer William Greer.
The Year of Jubilee
Vol. 1: Men of God and Vol. 2: Men of Muscle
by George F. Nagle
Both volumes of the Afrolumens book are now available to read directly from this site.
