This work marks the sixth volume of newspaper ads identifying Maryland runaways of the 18th century. The majority of the runaways are servants, apprentices, and slaves; however, also numbered among them are thieves, women who deserted their husbands, military deserters, and one or two murderers. According to Mr. Boyle, “The runaway ads provide a first-hand view of history, as well as valuable demographic information with the age, sex, height, place of origin, clothing, occupation, speech, as well as physical imperfections, etc.”
While the majority of the runaways were from Maryland, the author includes out-of-state fugitives when the papers refer to them. Besides the carefully transcribed ads themselves, researchers will benefit from Boyle’s Introduction, extensive bibliography, and a comprehensive name index. Black slaves and Indians mentioned in these advertisements are listed by race as well as by surname, when one is given.
Mr. Boyle has transcribed in excess of 1,500 advertisements, naming between 3,000 and 4,000 persons in all. In doing so, Mr. Boyle examined over 40 newspapers covering the Mid-Atlantic region of Virginia, Maryland, Washington, DC, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York.
By one estimate between 350,000 and 500,000 colonists came to America as compulsory laborers. Some came as indentured servants, others as convicts. For the investors who underwrote the transportation of forced labor–brokers, ships’ captains, landowners–the risks to their investment included death in passage, injury, chronic maladies, and running away. Out of necessity, colonial newspapers carried ads offering rewards for the apprehension of runaways and/or notices about their capture.
