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October 1778: Rachel, pregnant and with her young son, escapes from Col. Mordecai Gist at Trenton Ferry
THIRTY DOLLARS REWARD.
RUN AWAY from the subscriber, at Trenton Ferry, a Mulatto woman named RACHEL, a lusty tall woman, and very big with child; had on a striped lincey petticoat, and a large white cloth cloak; has with her a large bag of cloaths and a blanket: she pretends that she is free, as she has been stolen by a soldier these two years from her master, and has been in camp. She took with her a boy called BOB, about six years old, her own child, and appears to be white without close examination; the boy has on a brown cloth coat, oznabrigs overalls, shoes, and a hat with a gold ban round it; he appears sickly. Whoever takes up said woman and boy and secures them in any gaol, and gives information to Mr. Joseph Carlton, at the War Office, Philadelphia, or the subscriber at camp, shall have the above reward and reasonable charges, paid by
MORDECAI GIST, Col. 3d Reg., Com. 1st M.B. Oct. 6.
Colonel Mordecai Gist, a regimental commander in the Continental Army, placed the above notice of the escape of his pregnant enslaved woman Rachel, who took with her a young enslaved boy named Bob, from him at Trenton Ferry. Just a little over a week later Gist placed an updated notice, increasing the reward from thirty dollars to fifty dollars. We also learn from the updated notice that Bob is the escaped woman's son, and Rachel is her chosen name, and not the name assigned to her by her enslaver, which was Sarah. The new ad also reports that Rachel, who with her son made her escape under cover of night on Wednesday, October 7, 1778, went to the camp of the First Maryland Regiment, claiming to have a husband there.
FIFTY DOLLARS REWARD.
RAN AWAY, on the evening of the seventh inst. (October) from Trenton Ferry, a likely Mulatto slave named SARAH, but since calls herself RACHEL; she took her son with her, a Mulatto boy named BOB, about six years old, has a remarkable fair complexion, with flaxen hair: She is a lusty wench, about thirty-four years of age, big with child: had on a striped lincey petticoat, linen jacket, flat shoes, a large white cloth cloak, and a blanket, but may change her dress as she has other cloaths with her. She was lately apprehended in the first Maryland regiment, where she pretends to have a husband, with whom she has been the principal part of this campaign, and passed herself as a free woman,
Whoever apprehends said woman and boy, and will secure them in any gaol, so that their master may get them again, shall receive this above reward by applying to Mr. Blair M'Clenachan, of Philadelphia, Capt. Benjamin Brooks, of the third Maryland regiment, at camp, or to Mr. James Sterret, in Baltimore.
MORDECAI GIST.
Notes
Whether Rachel actually had a husband in the First Maryland Regiment is not definitively known. It is not unlikely, though, as there were quite a few Black soldiers in the Maryland Brigade at that time. It is also true that Rachel's husband could have been white, remembering that her six-year-old son Bob was described by Gist as "appears to be white." The First Maryland Regiment was raised around Baltimore, which was home to Colonel Gist and his slaves, and in fact Gist commanded the regiment earlier, making it entirely plausible that Rachel not only knew many of the soldiers in the unit and may indeed have been married to one. Gist continued paying to publish notices of the escape of Rachel and Bob through early December, two months after their escape. No mention of Rachel or Bob appear in Gist family papers after that point, making it likely that they were never recaptured by Mordecai Gist.
Mordecai Gist was born into a wealthy Baltimore family that enslaved a number of people. For an earlier report of an enslaved woman escaping from the Gist household, see "March 1770: Margaret Grant Dresses as a Boy Servant."
Sources
The Pennsylvania Packet, 15, 24 October 1778. The updated notices were published through December 1, 1778,
Covering the history of African Americans in central Pennsylvania from the colonial
era through the Civil War.
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