Pennsylvania's Lower Counties on the Delaware

Kent County Enslavement Data

Jailer's Notices of Captured Slaves

Published jailer notices provide information on local, state and out of state African Americans arrested and committed to the county jail as suspected escaped slaves. Enslavers of such persons, seeing the notices in regional newspapers, were expected to come to the jail, provide proof of ownership, and pay the costs associated with keeping, feeding, advertising, and filling out paperwork on the captured esapee.

Such notices provide valuable clues regarding the escape routes used by freedom seekers. They also illustrate the dangers faced by free Blacks traveling in areas where they were not known and arrested as suspected escaped slaves. Persons arrested and jailed under suspicion of being escaped slaves often faced months in prison due to delays by jailers in publishing notices, the allowance of weeks or months for potential enslavers to claim them, and the wait for court dates if no enslaver appeared to pay fees. In worst case instances, free Blacks who were unable to prove their free status could be sold back into enslavement by the county to recoup fees and costs.

• Name: Lot
  Date of item: 04 June 1777
  Location: Dover
  Item: Notice of impending public sale of suspected escaped slave who is poorly clothed and possibly mentally ill.
  Details/Text: "COMMITTED to the goal of Dover, in Kent County, on Delaware, a NEGRO MAN, calls his name LOT, about 40 years of age, very poorly cloathed, and appears not to be in his right reason at times; he says he is the property of ROBERT CONKEY, near the Head of Elk, and this is to desire his master to come and take him out immediately, otherwise he will be sold out according to law, by me
  THOMAS WILD, Goaler."
  Notes: Head of Elk refers to modern day Elkton, Maryland.
  Source: The Pennsylvania Journal or Weekly Advertiser, 04 June 1777.