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April 1804: Judith Escaped from Canandaigua Disguised as a Man
THIRTY DOLLARS REWARD,
BESIDES all reasonable expenses, will be paid by the subscriber, to any person who will take up and return to him a mulatto slave named JUDITH, that ran away from his dwelling house in Canandaigua on the 11th of April, instant. She is about twenty years of age, a little below middle stature, and of a robust make, has a wild inquisitive look, speaks so fast as sometimes to stutter a little.--
She was seen about the 15th instant, to pass into Pennsylvania, on the road from Newtown to Athens, in company with a white man. Said slave was then disguised in men's cloaths, and called her name Wright, said she had run away from an old man at Sodus, and was going to the Southward, to see her parents.--
Among other articles of women's apparel, which she took from home, with her, was a blue broad cloth spencer, a white dimity cloak, and straw bonnet. All persons are forbid harboring or assisting said slave to escape, on the penalty of the law.
DUDLEY SALTONSTALL.
Canandaigua, Ontario County, N. York, April 28, 1804.
Notes: Dudley Saltonstall, 1770-1824, was the son of Commodore Dudley Saltonstall, who gained recognition as a naval commander in the Revolutionary War and was a notorious slave trader. The son, who placed the ad above for the woman Judith, attended Litchfiled Law School in Connecticut and graduated from Yale in 1791. He established a legal practice about 1795, moved to Canandaigua, New York where he married Lois Chapin, and served as an officer in the New York State Militia. In the early 1800s Saltonstall went through a period of professional and personal dificutlies: his legal practice was not particularly successful and his wife Lois died in 1806. He gave up his law practice and turned to education, serving as the first principal of the newly built Canandaigua Academy from 1806 to 1807. He relocated from Canandaigua to Maryland, where he turned to business as a career, and later moved to New Jersey, where he died in 1824.
On Wednesday, April 11, 1804, Saltonstall's twenty-year-old enslaved woman Judith escaped from his household in Canandaigua. She was spotted that weekend entering Pennsylvania, traveling with a white man on the road from Newtown (Elmira) New York to Athens, Bradford County, Pennsylvania. This places her more than 100 miles from her starting point four days prior, a remarkable distance for an escaped slave to cover on foot.
Saltonstall reports that Judith "was then disguised in men's cloaths." Freedom seekers, knowing that their enslaver would provide a description of them in advertisements to aid in their capture, commonly altered their appearance where they could, usually by changing the clothes they wore when escaping. Cross-dressing as a member of the opposite sex was less common, but was used from time to time. It appears that Judith did not intend to wear men's clothing for a long period of time because she took along extra "articles of women's apparel."
She also had a story prepared, which she seems to have related to someone who passed it along to Saltonstall. She identifed herself as a servant named Wright, out of Sodus, New York, nearly ninety miles away on Lake Ontario and about thirty miles north of Saltonstall's home in Canandaigua. No other details are known of her escape. The escape notice published above provides a brief physical description of Judith but raises many questions: Who was her traveling companion, what was their relationship, if any, and at what point did they meet up? Did he play any part in her escape? Did she cover the entire distance from Canandaigua to Newtown (Elmira) on foot in four days, or did she take advantage of another conveyance, perhaps a horse or wagon?
For other examples of escaped slaves cross-dressing, see "January 1779: Richard Wood Dresses as a Woman." and "March 1770: Margaret Grant Dresses as a Boy Servant."
Sources:
Covering the history of African Americans in central Pennsylvania from the colonial era through the Civil War.
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