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December 1719: Coach Man Johney Escaped Last July
ADVERTISEMENT.
RUN away from his Master, Coll. Phillip Ludwell of Green-Spring, in Virginia, on Saturday the fourth of July 1719. his Coach-man A Mallato named Johney, but very White Complexion, aged about Twenty Two Years he is tall and well Limb'd, he has a little lump, on the small of his left Leg, and small holes Punched in the upper part of each Ear, short Dark hair and broad Teeth, Whosoever shall take up the said Mallato Slave, and bring him to his said Master at Virginia or to Mr. Henry Evans at Philadelphia, or Give Notice thereof so that he may be had again shall have Five Pounds as a Reward, with all Reasonable Charges paid by Phillip Ludwell or Henry Evans.
Source: The American Weekly Mercury, 29 December 1719. Republished with slight wording variations 05 January 1720.
Notes: The advertisement above is significant because it is the first published notice for an escaped slave to appear in a Philadelphia newspaper. Andrew Bradford's American Weekly Mercury first appeared in December 1719, the first regularly published newspaper to appear in the mainland American colonies outside of Boston. The Boston News-Letter, begun in April 1704, predated Bradford's American Weekly Mercury by 15 years, and another publication, the Boston Gazette, put out its first edition one day prior to Bradford's Mercury.
Andrew Bradford chose the name American for his publication with the intent of being read throughout all the middle colonies. Bradford's first edition appeared on December 22, 1719. A notice on page 2 specified subscription rates for Philadelphia, with higher rates for New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Virginia, Rhode Island and Boston. Bradford also listed agents for his paper in New York, Annapolis, Williamsburg, Hampton, New Castle, Salem, Amboy and Burlington.
His plan to appeal to the entire MIddle Atlantic region worked, as he was able to publish his first advertisement, the escaped slave notice from Colonel Phillip Ludwell of Virginia, in his second edition of December 29, 1719. This was also the only advertisement to appear in that second edition. Ludwell's notice was republished in the third edition of January 5, 1720 with a few changes in wording. That is the version of Ludwell's ad reproduced above, the existing first version from December having repairs to the paper that obscured some of the text.
The enslaver, "Coll. Phillip Ludwell of Green-Spring, in Virginia," is Philip Ludwell, Jr., who lived circa 1672-1727. He was born into a wealthy Virginia planter family and his father gained control of the vast Green Spring estate upon the death of his wife, the Lady Berkeley. Philip was put in charge of the plantation when his father moved to England upon Lady Berkeley's death about 1695.
By the time that Ludwell's man Johney escaped, in July 1719, Ludwell was a highly successful and wealthy planter, a member of Virginia's House of Burgesses, and a member of Virginia's power elite at Jamestown and later at Williamsburg. Even at that point, neither Virginia nor Maryland had newspapers, so Ludwell took advantage of the newly published Mercury, with circulation throughout the region, to run his advertisement for the man who had escaped some six months prior.
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