Reverend advertises for escaped slaves - 1657
Poster offering rewards for runaway slaves.
Introduction
Many southern preachers engaged in slavery and pursued runaways as determinedly as their neighbors. One such was Rev. Levi Traverse, whose slave Aaron Cornish ran away. Fifteen other slaves had recently escaped and the area was swarming with slave hunters. Nonetheless, Cornish, his wife, and six children, with barely enough food for a day, made it to safety despite a storm that poured on them for three days. Here is Rev. Traverse’s advertisement that ran in the Cambridge Democrat (a Maryland newspaper) on this day 4 November, 1857.
Quote
“$300 Reward.—Ran away from the subscriber, from the neighborhood of Town Point, on Saturday night, the 24th inst., my negro man, AARON CORNISH, about 35 years old. He is about five feet ten inches high, black, good-looking, rather pleasant countenance, and carries himself with a confident manner. He went off with his wife, DAFFNEY, a negro woman belonging to Reuben E. Phillips. I will give the above reward if taken out of the county, and $200 if taken in the county; in either case to be lodged in Cambridge Jail.”
Still, William. The Underground Railroad: A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters, &C., Narrating the Hardships, Hair-Breadth Escapes and Death Struggles of The Slaves in their Efforts for Freedom, as Related by Themselves and Others, or Witnessed by the Author. Philadelphia: Porter and Coates, 1872.