Maryland Gazette\u00a0<\/em>in 1766, one of countless such ads seeking the return of runaways from southern farms and plantations in the colonial and antebellum eras. Here\u2019s the ad:<\/p>\nRan away from the subscriber living in Baltimore-Town, on the 7th<\/sup> of September last, a Negro Girl, named Hagar, about 14 years of age, of a brownish complexion, remarkable long fingers and toes, has a scar under one of her breasts, supposed to be got by a whipping: Had on when she went away, an Osnabrig [a coarse fabric]\u00a0shift and petticoat very much patched, and may now be very ragged, an iron collar about her neck, which is is probable she has got off, as it was very poorly riveted. She is supposed to be harboured in some negro quarter, as her father and mother encourages her in elopements, under a pretence that she is ill used at home.<\/em><\/p>\nWhoever takes up the said girl, and brings her to me, shall have, if taken 10 miles from home twenty shillings reward, if 20 miles forty shillings, and if further three pounds, paid by<\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 WILLIAM PAYNE<\/em><\/p>\nN.B. All persons are forbid to harbour the said negro, as they shall answer the contrary at their peril.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat can we discern from this snapshot of American slavery on the eve of the Revolution? A few observations: first, the frequency of such ads speaks to the pervasiveness of slavery in American, and especially southern society, in these years, and the frequency with which even young slaves resisted slavery by running away.<\/p>\n
Second, we learn a lot about Hagar\u2019s life just by reading the ad: she already had a permanent scar on her torso from a whipping, and when she ran away, she did so with an iron collar still riveted on her neck.<\/p>\n1775 runaway slave ad<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThird, we see that William Payne was not sheepish about admitting that she had this scar (although he is less clear about who gave it to her), or that she departed with the collar fastened to her neck. In fact, he was willing to advertise these facts in the newspaper. Antebellum slave masters, by contrast, would often insist that slavery need not be this brutal, and that it could be practiced in a more humane, Christian fashion.<\/p>\n
Finally, Payne still expressed incredulity that some blacks (including Hagar\u2019s parents) would find the whippings and the collar evidence that she was \u201cill used at home.\u201d It is hard to imagine what he would count as ill treatment, if not such coercive violence.<\/p>\n
Historians get so used to slavery\u2019s existence in early America that one can become dulled to how violent it could be. Runaway slave ads could be remarkably frank about slavery, however, and unintentionally make clear the reasons why many enslaved people ran away when given the chance. I\u2019ll revisit the topic of slavery\u2019s violence, and Christianity\u2019s complicated relationship with it in America, in later posts.<\/p>\n
You can\u00a0sign up here<\/a>\u00a0for the Thomas S. Kidd author<\/em>\u00a0newsletter.\u00a0Each newsletter will update you\u00a0on what\u2019s happening in the world of American religious and political history. It will contain unique material available only to subscribers, and each will help you keep up with my blog posts, books, and other writings from around the web. [Your e-mail information will never be<\/em>\u00a0shared.] Thanks!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In research for my colonial America book, I recently came across a runaway slave ad cited in Ira Berlin\u2019s masterful\u00a0Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America. The ad appeared in the\u00a0Maryland Gazette\u00a0in 1766, one of countless such ads seeking the return of runaways from southern farms and plantations in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1000,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[404,5],"tags":[1648,1647,1645,1646,168,2800],"class_list":["post-8711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-slavery-2","category-thomas-kidd","tag-ira-berlin","tag-maryland","tag-runaway-slaves","tag-slave-ads","tag-slavery","tag-thomas-kidd"],"yoast_head":"\n
Runaway Slave Ads and the Violence of Slavery<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In research for my colonial America book, I recently came across a runaway slave ad cited in Ira Berlin's masterful\u00a0Many Thousands Gone: The First Two\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2014\/06\/runaway-slave-ads-and-the-violence-of-slavery\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Runaway Slave Ads and the Violence of Slavery\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In research for my colonial America book, I recently came across a runaway slave ad cited in Ira Berlin's masterful\u00a0Many Thousands Gone: The First Two\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2014\/06\/runaway-slave-ads-and-the-violence-of-slavery\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Anxious Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-06-24T04:01:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-06-16T14:04:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/7\/71\/Jenny_runaway_slave_1_28_1775.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Thomas Kidd\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Thomas Kidd\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2014\/06\/runaway-slave-ads-and-the-violence-of-slavery\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2014\/06\/runaway-slave-ads-and-the-violence-of-slavery\/\",\"name\":\"Runaway Slave Ads and the Violence of Slavery\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-06-24T04:01:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-06-16T14:04:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/#\/schema\/person\/e46cd10405460833d1f2159b7a9e6933\"},\"description\":\"In research for my colonial America book, I recently came across a runaway slave ad cited in Ira Berlin's masterful\u00a0Many Thousands Gone: The First Two\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2014\/06\/runaway-slave-ads-and-the-violence-of-slavery\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2014\/06\/runaway-slave-ads-and-the-violence-of-slavery\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2014\/06\/runaway-slave-ads-and-the-violence-of-slavery\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Runaway Slave Ads and the Violence of Slavery\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/\",\"name\":\"Anxious Bench\",\"description\":\"The Relevance of Religious History for Today\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/#\/schema\/person\/e46cd10405460833d1f2159b7a9e6933\",\"name\":\"Thomas Kidd\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2f7767c99f992a3fe8a2cd5ad874ddf6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2f7767c99f992a3fe8a2cd5ad874ddf6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Thomas Kidd\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/ThomasSKidd\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/author\/thomaskidd\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Runaway Slave Ads and the Violence of Slavery","description":"In research for my colonial America book, I recently came across a runaway slave ad cited in Ira Berlin's masterful\u00a0Many Thousands Gone: The First Two","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2014\/06\/runaway-slave-ads-and-the-violence-of-slavery\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Runaway Slave Ads and the Violence of Slavery","og_description":"In research for my colonial America book, I recently came across a runaway slave ad cited in Ira Berlin's masterful\u00a0Many Thousands Gone: The First Two","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2014\/06\/runaway-slave-ads-and-the-violence-of-slavery\/","og_site_name":"Anxious Bench","article_published_time":"2014-06-24T04:01:46+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-06-16T14:04:05+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/7\/71\/Jenny_runaway_slave_1_28_1775.jpg"}],"author":"Thomas Kidd","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Thomas Kidd","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2014\/06\/runaway-slave-ads-and-the-violence-of-slavery\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2014\/06\/runaway-slave-ads-and-the-violence-of-slavery\/","name":"Runaway Slave Ads and the Violence of Slavery","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-06-24T04:01:46+00:00","dateModified":"2014-06-16T14:04:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/#\/schema\/person\/e46cd10405460833d1f2159b7a9e6933"},"description":"In research for my colonial America book, I recently came across a runaway slave ad cited in Ira Berlin's masterful\u00a0Many Thousands Gone: The First Two","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2014\/06\/runaway-slave-ads-and-the-violence-of-slavery\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2014\/06\/runaway-slave-ads-and-the-violence-of-slavery\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2014\/06\/runaway-slave-ads-and-the-violence-of-slavery\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Runaway Slave Ads and the Violence of Slavery"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/","name":"Anxious Bench","description":"The Relevance of Religious History for Today","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/#\/schema\/person\/e46cd10405460833d1f2159b7a9e6933","name":"Thomas Kidd","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2f7767c99f992a3fe8a2cd5ad874ddf6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2f7767c99f992a3fe8a2cd5ad874ddf6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Thomas Kidd"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/ThomasSKidd"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/author\/thomaskidd\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1000"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8711\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/7\/71\/Jenny_runaway_slave_1_28_1775.jpg\")