PA County Index

PA Enslavement FAQs

A series of pages exploring
various aspects of enslavement in Pennsylvania

Dauphin County, Pennsylvania

Historical Slavery Advertisements

Source

Dauphin Guardian, 5 October, 1805; page 3. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Text

FOR SALE, Two Negro Servants; THE man, aged 30 years, a slave for life, has been brought up on a farm, and is acquainted with the tanning busines. The girl, 21 years, has 7 years to serve, and is acquainted with all kinds of house-work. For further particulars, enquire of the editors of this paper.Sept. 26, 1805.

Notes

This advertisement from a Harrisburg newspaper describes two seemingly valuable enslaved persons. The man, a slave for life, is trained in two trades: farming and tanning. The woman is "acquainted with all kinds of house-work." As adults, neither would require training or close supervision, as would a child. Yet it is their ages that keeps their value down. The preference in buying enslaved workers was always for children, ideally in their early teens. The woman in this ad, born about 1784, could be kept for only seven more years, until 1812, when she must be given her freedom. The man, born in 1775 and prior to the Gradual Emancipation Act of 1780, could be kept enslaved for the remainder of his life, however.

See also

1780 Gradual Abolition Act

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