Escapees subjected to extraordinary measures to keep them confined
SLAVES WHO HAD SHOWN themselves likely to try to escape were often subjected to enhanced methods to keep them in place. It didn’t always work and sometimes those who escaped were found even years later with iron rings around ankles or even their necks.
Others sustained injuries to their hands and feet getting the irons off. Those who escaped slavery must have felt as if any amount of pain was better than returning to the slave holder.
Jonathan Powell, the jailer of Adams County, Miss. reported on May 11, 1813 that a Black woman he did not name had been arrested on suspicion of being an escaped slave. There was little doubt of that as she had a large iron bar fastened around her neck.
She was said to be about 24 years old and 5-6 with her hands considerably cramped because of a burn. She mentioned that she had escaped from a number of slave holders, primarily Thomas and Francis Surget.
Natchez was the county seat of Adams County and an active slave-trading port, which meant its jail held many escaped slaves.
Another escapee reported the same day in the same newspaper was a Black man named Stephen (last name unavailable) described as about 5-8 with two fingers of his right hand injured in an accident at a cotton gin. He was arrested as being held by slave owner Hampton White.
The notice appeared in the May 25, 1813 edition of the Mississippi Free Trader of Natchez.
On to this week’s stories.
SLAVE HOLDER ZACHARIAH BERRY Sr. reported that a Black man named Harry (last name unavailable) had escaped his tobacco plantation in Prince Georges County Maryland, some seven miles from the town of Bladensburg on New Year’s Day 1828.
Berry was said to be the seventh largest slaveholder in the county, with 88 humans
held in bondage. He was also an exceptionally wealthy landowner at the time.
Harry was said to be about 25 years old, about 5-7 with a “remarkable” scar over his right eye. He had been trained as a rough carpenter and shoemaker.
Berry said Harry had been spotted traveling near the Pennsylvania state line with a forged pass.
Berry was offering a $50 if Harry was captured within Maryland and $150 reward if captured out of the state and brought back to the plantation.
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