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Free Persons of Color
Pennsylvanians of African Heritage emerge from enslavement to build community.
Money and Fry Have a 200-Year Lease on Property
Notice included with a Sheriff Sale
The following advertisement appeared in The Pennsylvania Gazette, advertising a Sheriff's sale at public auction of a farm and land. What would typically be a very common notice included a note at the end that made it extraordinary: that nearly one-fifth of the land being sold was leased to two African American men, Money and Fry, for 200 years.
Text of advertisement:
BY virtue of a writ of Levari Facias, to me directed, will be sold, by public vendue, on the premises, on Monday, the 25th day of May inst. at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, a certain messuage, plantation and tract of land, situate in the township of Cheltenham, in the county of Phildelphia, containing 243 acres and 89 perches; bounded by lands of Evan Thomas, Isaac Tyson, and land of Richard and Humphrey Morrey, and others; late part of the estate of Robert Greenway deceased, seized and taken in execution by
WILLIAM PARR, Sheriff.
N.B. Certain two Negroes, viz. Money and Fry, claim 45 acres of the premises above mentioned, which they hold on lease for 200 years, great part of which term in yet unexpired.
Sources
Pennsylvania Gazette, 21 May 1767