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A series of pages exploring
various aspects of enslavement in Pennsylvania
Northumberland County
Jailer Notices for Enslaved Persons
Published jailer notices provide information on local, state and out of state African Americans arrested and committed to the county jail as suspected escaped slaves. Enslavers of such persons, seeing the notices in regional newspapers, were expected to come to the jail, provide proof of ownership, and pay the costs associated with keeping, feeding, advertising, and filling out paperwork on the captured esapee.
Such notices provide valuable clues regarding the escape routes used by freedom seekers. They also illustrate the dangers faced by free Blacks traveling in areas where they were not known and arrested as suspected escaped slaves. Persons arrested and jailed under suspicion of being escaped slaves often faced months in prison due to delays by jailers in publishing notices, the allowance of weeks or months for potential enslavers to claim them, and the wait for court dates if no enslaver appeared to pay fees. In worst case instances, free Blacks who were unable to prove their free status could be sold back into enslavement by the county to recoup fees and costs.
Items
Names: James and Tom
Date of item: 12 July 1785
Location: Sunbury
Item: Notice of imprisonment of James and Tom, both suspected of being escaped slaves.
Details/Text: "WHEREAS there have been taken up and brought to the gaol of Sunbury, some time in May last, two NEGRO MEN; the one of them a well set negro, about 25 years of age, and about 5 feet and 6 inches high, speaks good English, calls himself JAMES. The other is about the same size, perhaps a few years older, calls himself TOM; he was taken up and brought here the 27th of June last. The owners of said negroes, or either of them, are desired to come, prove property, pay charges, and take them away; or else they will be sold for their fees and charges, in four weeks time from this date. HENRY ANTES, Sheriff. July 12, 1785."
Notes: James has been in jail for about two months, and Tom for several weeks by the time Sheriff Antes published this notice. Sheriff Henry Antes is John Henry Antes, who came to the area about 1772 and built a gristmill in 1773. As a colonel in the militia, he built a stockaded fort near what is modern Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania, in present day Lycoming County. He is credited with overseeing the evacuation of settlers from the West Branch Valley to Fort Augusta in Sunbury in what became known as the "Big Runaway" in 1778, preventing further casualties from Loyalist and Native American soldiers. Antes was made Sheriff in Sunbury in 1782. He died in 1820.
Source: The Independent Gazetteer (Philadelphia), 16 July 1785; Chris Yohn, "The Big Runaway: Turning Point of the Susquehanna West Branch Settlers," Journal of the American Revolution, 2023, online at https://allthingsliberty.com/2023/02/the-big-runaway-turning-point-of-the-susquehanna-west-branch-settlers/, accessed 08 April 2026.
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