Pennsylvania's Lower Counties on the Delaware

Sussex County on Delaware Enslavement Data

Jailer's Notices Regarding Enslaved People

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.

• Name: Billy
  Date of item: 20 May 1769
  Location: Sussex County on Delaware jail
  Item: Escape, subsequent capture, and imprisonment of a teenaged boy who had escaped from Virginia.
  Details/Text: "Sussex County, on Delaware.
  ON the sixth day of June instant, was taken up a Negroe BOY, by John Wood, of Lewis Town, on suspicion of being a runaway, and committed to the goal of the county aforesaid; and upon examination, he is found to answer every description (except his cloathing, which he says is changed) of a boy advertised in the Pennsylvania Gazette, No. 2110, by John Brockenbrough, of Hobb's-Hole, in Virginia. His master may have him again, by applying to
  BOAZ MANLOVE, Sheriff."
  Notes: The escape notice that Sheriff Manlove referenced is below:

  Hobb's Hole, Virginia, May 20, 1769.
  RUN away from the Subscriber, the 2d instant, a Negroe boy, named Billy, about 15 years old, he is a likely, stout, well made lad, and not very black; had on, when he went away, a brown cloth coat, with red sleeves and collar, and green plains waistcoat and breeches. He was seen in Richmond county, going upwards, with David Randolph, a cooper by trade, who run away from this town the 5th instant; he is a stout made fellow; had on, a blue serge coat, lappelled, with yellow buttons, a white waistcoat, striped with blue (which appears to be country made) and leather breeches; he had other clothes with him, and some cooper's tools. He worked last at Mr. James Hunter's, but am told served his time in Philadelphia, and I apprehend will carry the boy to Maryland or Pennsylvania, to sell him. Whoever takes up the said boy, and secures him, so that I may get him again, shall receive Five Pounds, if taken in the colony, if out of the colony TEN POUNDS, from
  JOHN BROCKENBROUGH.

  Sources: The Pennsylvania Gazette, 01, 29 June 1769.