Runaway Indentured Servant

July 13

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

Who was the subject of an advertisement in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Maryland Gazette (July 13, 1775).

“An English servant man … intended to Boston to general Gage, who he understood would protect all servants who came to him.”

William Allein of Lower Marlborough in Calvert County turned to the Maryland Gazette to seek assistance in recovering an enslaved man and an indentured servant in the summer of 1775.  He ran two advertisements in the July 13 edition, one concerning Mial, an enslaved man who became a fugitive for freedom at the beginning of May, and Slude, an “English servant man” who “WENT away” in early July.  Allein expected newspaper readers to observe strangers to assess whether they matched the descriptions he published, offering rewards to those who participated in securing Mial and Slude and returning them to him.

Allein gave a physical description of Slude, including recent injuries (“his thumb and middle finger on his left hand fresh cut” and “a sore heel which occasions him to limp at times”) that could make him easier to recognize, and detailed the clothing that Slude wore or took with him.  His “North country dialect” also distinguished the indentured servant.  According to Allein, Slude was “by trade a sawyer, though he pretends to be a gardener and weaver.”  He would engage in other subterfuge as well, changing his name and traveling by night to avoid detection.

Compared to many of his counterparts who placed other advertisements for runaway indentured servants, apprentices, and convict servants and enslaved people who liberated themselves, Allein was well informed about where Mial and Slude were likely headed.  “I have heard that [Mial] proposed going towards Alexandria in Virginia,” Allein declared.  As for Slude, “I understand that … he intended to Boston to general Gage, who he understood would protect all servants who came to him.”  Current events influenced Slude when he planned the route for making his escape; he apparently relied on rumors, hoping for their veracity.  Word of the battles at Lexington and Concord and the ensuing siege of Boston quickly spread throughout the colonies, as did news of the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Yet not all the news was always accurate, not even the accounts printed in newspapers.  The confusion created openings for men like Slude to embrace the reports that they wanted to believe.  In the end, however, Mial may have been more successful in eluding Allein than Slude was.  The advertisement describing Mial ran for many weeks, but the notice about Slude appeared only once.  The indentured servant heading to Boston may have been recognized and captured shortly after it appeared, prompting Allein to discontinue the advertisement.  If Mial made it to Virginia and managed to avoid capture until November, he might have joined Lord Dunmore, the royal governor, when he issued a proclamation that offered freedom to enslaved people and indentured servants “appertaining to Rebels” if they joined “His MAJESTY’s Troops” in “reducing this Colony to a proper Sense of their Duty.”

February 5

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , , , ,

Who were the subjects of advertisements in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Providence Gazette (February 5, 1774).

“RUN away … an Apprentice Lad, named John Bates.”

“Susannah Bartlett, the Wife of Sylvanus Bartlett, hath absented herself.”

“RUN away … a Servant Man, named Kimbal Ramsdill, a pretended Carpenter or Joiner.”

Colonizers used various kinds of “runaway” advertisements in their efforts to maintain social order.  Such was the case in the February 5, 1774, edition of the Providence Gazette.  Several colonizers published stories of subordinates who ran away, giving directions about how others should interact with them if they happened to encounter them.

In the first of those advertisements that readers saw if they perused the newspaper from the first page to the last, Stephen Sheldon of Cranston announced, “RUN away … an Apprentice Lad, named John Bates.”  The apprentice had departed on March 28, 1773, nearly a year earlier, but Sheldon hoped that his advertisement would result in recovering him.  He offered “Eight Dollars Reward” to “Whoever takes up said Apprentice, and returns him to his Master.”  He also provided a physical description to aid in identifying the runaway, including an especially distinctive feature.  The young man “has lost two or three Fingers on his right Hand.”

Providence Gazette (February 5, 1774).

The next advertisement revealed marital discord in the Bartlett household in Smithfield.  “Susannah Bartlett, the Wife of Sylvanus Bartlett,” the husband proclaimed, “hath absented herself from his Bed and Board, and run him considerably in Debt.”  Accordingly, he no longer assumed responsibility for her expenses.  Invoking language that appeared in such advertisements throughout the colonies, Sylvanus declared that he “hereby forbids all Persons to credit her further on his Account, being determined to pay no Debts of her contracting.”  As had been the case with Sheldon running an advertisement about Bates, Sylvanus had much greater access to the public prints than Susannah, so readers of the Providence Gazette knew only one side of the story.  The apprentice and the wife may have had good reasons to leave the Sheldon and Bartlett households.

Providence Gazette (February 5, 1774).

In another advertisement, Benjamin Cargill of Pomfret, Connecticut, described Kimbal Ramsdill, a “Servant Man” and a “Pretended Carpenter or Joiner” who had “RUN away” the previous December.  Cargill indicated that Ramsdill often misrepresented himself, not only in terms of his trade but also his origins.  “The above Fellow,” he stated in a nota bene, “pretends at Times he was born at Lynn, and at other Times at Newbury.”  Indeed, he was “much given to Lying, and apt to tell of his having Land in different Parts.”  In this instance, Cargill did not ask readers to accept his word alone that Ramsdill engaged in unsavory behavior.  He reported that the indentured servant “hath lately been convicted of Stealing, and publicly whipped seven Lashes, the Marks of which perhaps may yet be seen.”  Cargill promised “Ten Dollars Reward” to “Whoever will take up said Servant, and secure him in any of his Majesty’s Goals [Jails].”

The advertisements in the Providence Gazette and other colonial newspapers did not merely market goods and services to consumers.  Many of them instead delivered news about local events, including cases of runaway apprentices, wives, and indentured servants.  The colonizers who placed those advertisements did so for their own purposes, but also thought they did the community a service by warning about men and women who did not abide by behavior considered appropriate to their status or, sometimes, had even been convicted of crimes.  While there are many reasons not to lump John Bates, Susannah Bartlett, and Kimbal Ramsfill together, the men who placed advertisements about them belonged to a common category of colonizers who used the power of the press in their efforts to impose order on subordinates who they reported had misbehaved.

September 4

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Maryland Journal (September 4, 1773).

“Advertisements omitted, will be inserted in our next.”

William Goddard quickly attracted advertisers when he commenced publication of the Maryland Journal, the first newspaper printed in Baltimore, in August 1773.  Paid notices filled four and a half columns, out of twelve total, in the third issue, but that was not all of them submitted to the printing office.  Goddard included a brief note alerting readers and, especially, advertisers who expected to see their notices in print that “Advertisements omitted, will be inserted in our next.”  Advertising represented an important revenue stream for printers, so Goddard must have been pleased with his initial success in attracting advertisers for the Maryland Journal.

For their part, advertisers from Baltimore and beyond welcomed the opportunity to disseminate information in the new publication.  Eleven of the advertisements in the September 4 edition described runaway indentured servants or runaway convict servants and offered rewards for their capture and return to their masters.  Previously, residents of Baltimore and surrounding towns resorted to the Maryland Gazette, published in Annapolis, the Virginia Gazette, published in Williamsburg, and the several newspapers published in Philadelphia to alert colonizers about runaways and encourage them to participate in surveillance of strangers to assess whether they matched the descriptions in the public prints.  The Maryland Journal buttressed the efforts of certain colonizers to use the early American press to uphold what they considered the appropriate order in their communities.

Other advertisers, including purveyors of consumer goods and services, now had a truly local alternative for promoting their businesses.  In the September 4 edition, Ewing and Hart marketed rum, wine, and spirits at their store on Gay Street, John Flanagan hawked tea, coffee, and sugar at his store on Market Street, and Nicholas Brooks promoted jewelry and prints “at the CROWN and CUSHION, in BALTIMORE.”  In addition, John Hamilton, “TAILOR and HABIT-MAKER, from GLASGOW,” introduced himself to prospective clients with an announcement that he “has opened shop in Gay-street, BALTIMORE-TOWN … where he makes mens and womens clothes in the very newest fashions.”  He highlighted his experience “having wrought for eight years past in the best shops in Britain,” hoping that readers would be impressed enough to give the newcomer a chance to build a reputation in Baltimore.  He promised to make it “his constant endeavour to give, to the utmost of his power, entire satisfaction” to his customers in return for “suitable encouragement from the generous public.”  The Maryland Journal provided an introduction to prospective customers beyond those Hamilton happened to meet in the course of his daily routine.

Other advertisers sought the advantages of placing notices in Baltimore’s first newspaper, some with advertisements that ran on September 4 and others with advertisements delayed until the next edition.  A newspaper, complete with shipping news, prices current, and advertisements, marked the port’s growing size and significance in the region.

May 22

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

Who was the subject of an advertisement in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Providence Gazette (May 22, 1773).

“He was seen in New-York. And remained some Days there; but has since taken his Flight to Rhode-Island.”

An advertisement in the Providence Gazette in the spring of 1773 described Jonathan Pinkard, an indentured servant who ran away from watchmaker Samuel Jefferys, and offered a reward for his capture.  Jefferys noted that Pinkard was “by Trade a Watchmaker,” likely the reason they entered the indenture contract together, and cautioned other watchmakers that Pinkard “will probably apply to the Trade for Work.”  He requested that they exercise special vigilance in detecting and detaining this “talkative Fellow.”

Unlike most other advertisements about runaway indentured servants in the Providence Gazette, this one did not concern a fugitive who departed from Providence or a nearby town.  Instead, Pinkard fled from Philadelphia.  What made Jefferys believe that placing an advertisement in the Providence Gazette would yield results?  He reported that Pinkard “was seen in New-York, and remained some Days there; but has since taken his Flight to Rhode-Island, and will probably proceed to Boston.”  Where did Jefferys derive this intelligence?

Another advertisement in another newspaper may very well have put Jefferys on the trail of Pinkard.  In a notice in the April 5 edition of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, Jefferys offered a similar description of the “talkative cowardly fellow.”  In addition to the clothing that Pinkard took with him, he also had a “silver watch, with a steel chain, maker’s name Thomas Hill, London, No. 11,151,” which would have been easy to identify.  Jefferys did not mention the watch in his advertisement in the Providence Gazette, perhaps suggesting that he had evidence that the runaway servant sold or traded the watch in New York.  The aggrieved Jefferys also increased the reward from five dollars to eight dollars, an indication of his exasperation and his commitment to recovering Pinkard as the indentured servant put more and more distance between himself and the watchmaker in Philadelphia.  Jefferys’s investment in the effort already included advertising in newspapers in two cities.

That investment had not yet resulted in the capture and return of Pinkard, yet the progression of notices in the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury to notices in the Providence Gazette suggests some level of effectiveness of the initial advertisement and Jefferys’s belief that another advertisement had a good chance of producing the desired results.