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July 1776: Maria escapes from New Jersey in men's clothing
IN MENS CLOTHES.
RAN AWAY the 30th July last, from the Jerseys to Philadelphia or New York, a Mulatto woman slave, named MARIA, had on a white or red and white jacket, white ticken breeches, white stockings, old shoes, and an old beaver hat; she is hardly discernable from a white woman, of a thin visage, middle size, thick legs, long black hair, and is about 35 years old:
She has left behind her three young children, a good master and mistress, and is going toward New-York after a married white man, who is a soldier in the Continental army there. Whoever secures the said Mulatto in jail, and will immediately advertise the same in this paper, shall have FOUR DOLLARS reward.
Notes
The New Jersey enslavers of 35-year-old Maria, in advertising her July 30th escape, led off with the attention-grabbing, all caps headline "IN MENS CLOTHES." While this may be seen as nothing more than an attention-grabbing ploy, there are reasons to believe they did so because they viewed her gender-swapping garb as an affront to their morals as well as to social norms. No laws or punishments directly pertaining to cross-dressing existed in the mid-Atlantic colonies at this time, although cross-dressing was not viewed with tolerance. Sixty years earlier accusations of cross-dressing were leveled at Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury, the Governor of New York and New Jersey between 1701-1708. Thpse accusations have been discounted by modern historians as slander by his political enemies, but the social disapproval was palpable.
Maria's enslavers add that she "left behind her three young children," and self-servingly added (and) "a good master and mistress." Furthermore, she was chasing "a married white man." Interracial relationships were surprisingly common in colonial America, despite early laws prescribing punishments for such unions. Maria apparently had a relationship with a white soldier.
For an earlier report of an enslaved woman escaping in men's clothing, see "March 1770: Margaret Grant Dresses as a Boy Servant"; For a 1779 example of an enslaved person cross-dressing see "January 1779: Richard Wood Dresses as a Woman."
Sources
Dunlap's Pennsylvania Packet and General Advertiser, 13 August 1776.
Covering the history of African Americans in central Pennsylvania from the colonial era through the Civil War.
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