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August 1786: Dorckas escapes with 3 young sons
Montgomery county, Maryland, Aug. 18, 1786.
Thirty Pounds Reward.
RAN-AWAY last night from the subscriber, a likely Negro wench, namde DORKCAS, aged about 30 years, she is a small wench, and stammers in her speech, and when made angry stutters much, she took her three children with her, which are all boys, viz. TOM, about 8 years old, with a speck in one of his eyes; PHIL, about 5 years, JACK, 3 years old, and kind of Mulattoes, their father being a Mulatto slave, called PHIL, a noted villain, that belonged a few years ago to Capt. William Luckett, deceased, on Monocasy, Montgomery county, Maryland, and now belongs to Mr. Wm. Davis, Berkely county, Virginia, and has been ranaway near twelve months; it is very certain that he, his wife and children went off together, and suppose to make to Pennsylvania, Jersey, or Redstone; she has a great deal of clothing with her, her son Tom, has a coat of Crimson Velvet. --
Whoever takes up said wench and her three children, and brings them to me the subscriber, living on Seneca, Mongomery county, Maryland, shall receive THIRTY POUNDS Currency, the above reward.
CHARLES HUNGERFORD.
Notes
Charles Hungerford's August 1786 advertisement tells the story of Dorkcas, a thirty-year-old enslaved woman who escapes with her three young boys, Tom, Phil and Jack. Hungerford believes that woman and her children have linked up with the boys' father, Phil, and the reunited family is headed for Philadelphia, New Jersey or "Redstone." The last destination may refer to Redstone Old Fort, a remote location in modern day Fayette County, Pennsylvania, built in 1759 by Colonel James Burd to guard the point where the Nemacolin Trail crossed the Monongahela River at a ford.
Charles Hungerford is credited with opening a tavern at the intersection of the market roads leading to tobacco inspection warehouses at Bladensburg and George Town. Hungerford Tavern became a meeting place and eventually served as courthouse for the region.
Sources
The Carlisle Gazette and the Western Repository of Knowledge, 13 September 1786.
Jean B. Russo, “The Early Towns of Montgomery County, 1747-1831,” Montgomery County Story, 34:2, May 1991.
Covering the history of African Americans in central Pennsylvania from the colonial era through the Civil War.
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