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The Year of Jubilee (1863)

August 1821: John Trip escapes from Montgomery County, Maryland

$100 Reward.
Ran away from the subscriber, living near Brookville, Montgomery county, Maryland, on the 31st July last, a negro man, who calls himself John Trip, aged about 19 years, thin face, and high thin nose, light made, straight, black, and very active, looks down when walking, and stammers when spoken to--has a scar over the left eye--about 5 feet 8 inches high--had on a cotton shirt, old hat and linen trowsers.

He was raised on the Eastern Shore, near Cambridge, and will probably endeavor to get there by the way of Baltimore or Annapolis. I will give the above reward for securing said negro, if taken out of the State, so that I get him again--and 60 dollars if taken in the State--and in either case, I will pay all reasonable expenses if brought home.

Ephraim Gaither.
August 31.

N.B. All owners of vessels, and others are forwarned from receiving, harbouring or carrying off said negro at their peril, as they will be dealt with according to law. E.G.

Source: Lancaster Journal, 31 August 1821.

Editor's Note: Ephraim Gaither was one of several men attacked by the "Mob of 1812" in Baltimore when they attempted to distribute a politically unpopular newspaper that opposed the declaration of war with Great Britain. Gaither and about twenty-one armed compatriots garrisoned a strong brick house on South Charles Street, near Mercer, from which they intended to publish and distribute the Federal Republican newspaper. They were led by newspaper editor Alexander Contee Hanson, and Revolutionary War hero General Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee.

On the night of 27 July 1812, a Democratic-Republican mob surrounded and stoned the house, but city authorities refused to act. It was during the mob's siege of the house that Ephraim Gaither was severely wounded by a bullet. The defenders of the house surrendered to city authorities the next morning for their own protection, but later that day the mob stormed the jail after meeting no resistance from police, and beat, tortured, and maimed most of the detained men, killing one of them immediately. General Henry Lee, a confidant of George Washington and father of Robert E. Lee, sustained injuries so severe that his speech and health were permanently affected.

See also LIncoln's Visit to Harrisburg

Covering the history of African Americans in central Pennsylvania from the colonial era through the Civil War.

Support the Afrolumens Project. Buy the books:

The Year of Jubilee, Volume One: Men of God, Volume Two: Men of Muscle