Pennsylvania's Lower Counties on the Delaware

New Castle 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: Name not known
  Date of item: 20 July 1730
  Location: New Castle
  Item: Notice of impending public sale of suspected escaped slave who "looks wild" and speaks no English.
  Details/Text: "WHereas Notice was published in the American Weekly Mercury, and the Maryland Gazette, in the Months of November and December last, concerning a strange Negroe Man, in the Custody of the Sheriff of New-Castle County, which Negro was taken up as a Runaway, in MillsCreek Hundred, in said County, on the Thirteenth Day of October last, and no Person has since that Time, claim'd the said Negroe, or brought any Account of him, but, by all that can be discovered, from the Account the Negroe gives of himself; it seems, his Master is a practitioner of Physick or Surgery, in some part of Maryland or Virginia. These are therefore to give Notice, That, if there be no further Account of the Master, or Owner of the said Negroe, before the Twentieth Day of August next, the Negroe is to be Sold for Payment of his Prison Charges, &c. He is a short small Limb'd nible Fellow, about Twenty five Years of Age, has a great Head, wide Mouth, and large Eyes, looks wild and staring; seems as if he cannot speak or understand English, nor the Language of any of the Negroes about NewCastle.
  July 20, 1730. William Read, Sheriff of New-Castle."
  Notes: The only additional information in the original capture notice, beyond what was included in the impending sale notice above, was a description of the man's clothing when captured. He was wearing "a Brown Jacket, ragged black Shirt, short Ozenbriggs Trowsers, with a Pair of Leather Breeches underneath."
  Source: The American Weekly Mercury, 06 November 1729, 06 August 1730.

• Name: Tom
  Date of item: 15 January 1763
  Location: New Castle
  Item: Notice of imprisonment of suspected escaped slave who claims he is free.
  Details/Text: "New Castle, Jan. 15, 1763.
  Committed to the Goal of this County, a Negroe Man, who calls himself Tom, says he is a free Man, and a Tenant to Mr. Thomas Riche, Merchant, in Philadelphia; he is about five Feet ten Inches high, wears a good blue Coat, with Metal Buttons, Great Coat, Leather Breeches, good Shoes and Stockings, &c. His Master, if he has any, is desired to come in four Weeks from the Date hereof, pay Charges, and take him away, otherwise he will be sold for the same, by
  ALEXANDER HARVEY, Goaler."
  Notes:
  Source: The Pennsylvania Gazette, 20 January 1763.