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June 1767: Jack, an "Indian Slave" man escapes from Robert Fields in Burlington County.
RUN away from the Subscriber, on the 10th of this inst. June, a Musqueto Shore Indian Slave, named JACK, about 5 Feet 6 or 7 Inches high, thick set, about 21 Years old, with long black Hair, which he generally wears tied behind; took with him a Fiddle, plays badly on it, and had on a halfworn Felt Hat, a lightish coloured Stuff Coat, a blue Broadcloth Waistcoat, Ozenbrigs Shirt and Trowsers, a Pair of old Shoes, with Brass Buckles; he took a fine Shirt with him. Whoever takes up said Slave, and secures him in any Goal on the Continent, so that he may be had again, or brings him to the Subscriber, at Whitehill, in Burlington County, West Jersey, shall have THREE POUNDS Reward, and reasonable Charges, paid by ROBERT FIELDS.
N.B. All Persons are forewarned harbouring him, and all Masters of Vessels taking him off at their Peril.
Notes
The enslaved Jack is described by Robert Fields as an "Indian Slave." Although African Americans are most often associated with systems of colonial enslavement, Indiginous people of the Americas were also enslaved in large numbers by colonists. The enslavement of Native Americans by Europeans in the North American colonies was most common in the decades prior to the mass importation of African slaves, but the practice persisted on a smaller scale into the revolutionary era, as evidenced by this escape notice.
Jack is "a Musqueto Shore" Indian. This could refer to two entirely different areas. The coastal and bayside areas of New Jersey were notorious for the heavy infestation of mosquitoes. References are recorded in reminiscences and letters from colonial settlers and visitors to the area. However the name "Musqueto Shore" does not appear to have been used in those references with regard to these areas.
It is entirely possible that Jack is a Miskito man, a member of the Afro-Indiginous peoples living on what was known as the Mosquito Coast, a land in the Western Caribbean along the coastlines of present day Nicaragua and Honduras. This area was sometimes referred to as the Mosquito Shore. Escaped African slaves and the survivors of shipwrecked slave ships settled in the area and intermixed with the indiginous Miskito peoples. These mixed race people were named Mosquito Zambo by the Spanish.
The Mosquito Zambo allied themselves with the British in the early 18th century and began raiding neighboring Spanish and unallied settlements. In addition, the British enlisted them to track down and attack the Maroon settlements inland. Captives from these raids and Maroon expeditions were sold as slaves, supplying many workers for the sugar plantations in the Caribbean. Jack, born about 1741, could easily have been one of these captured and enslaved Miskito people.
Robert Fields, the enslaver of Jack, appears to be Robert Field II (1723-1775), who inherited White Hill plantation in 1757 from his father and built White Hill Mansion circa 1760. He was married to Mary Peale in 1765, who was widowed and became matriarch of White Hill in 1775 when Robert drowned in the Delaware River. Mary attempted to keep the plantation from damage as war raged over the county. She was visited by American naval captain Houston in 1776, then in December of that year hosted Hessian Captain Wrenden, who made White Hill Mansion his headquarters. Count Carl Emil Kirk Von Donop, a Hessian colonel and commander of Hessian forces near Trenton, wrote an order protecting the plantation from raids.
Mary Peale Field married American Commodore Thomas Read in 1779. That same year she assisted American Commodore John Barry in escaping capture by British forces.
Sources
The Pennsylvania Gazette, 18 June 1767.
Frank Griffith Dawson, "William Pitt’s Settlement at Black River on the Mosquito Shore: A Challenge to Spain in Central America, 1732-87," Hispanic American Historical Review (1983) 63 (4): 677–706. Online at https://doi.org/10.1215/00182168-63.4.677, accessed 23 June 2025.
The Friends of White Hill Mansion, https://www.whitehillmansion.org/history, accessed 23 June 2025.
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