A round-up of databases of runaway slave advertisements shared by Jessica Marie Johnson on Twitter. List (with additions from Twitters users) below the fold:
“First: Kudos to
@CrystalNEddins who compiled this list of sites collecting runaway ads – On the lives of fugitives: Runaway slave advertisement databases | HASTAC.Thank you for bringing these (several I’ve used for over a decade) into one place.”
The List (last updated 2018 April 20)
- Documenting Runaway Slaves (these are for Mississippi) http://bit.ly/2JXLzbM
- Slavery Adverts 250 Project, which is actually a subset of the larger Adverts 250 Project http://bit.ly/2JTvVhI And comes with a very cool Twitter account Slavery Adverts 250 (
@SlaveAdverts250) - Other twitter accounts:
@TxRunawayAds and@RunawaySlavesGB and@slaveryuva - Runaway Connecticut http://bit.ly/2JWOHow
- Runaway Slave Ads – Baltimore County, Maryland – 1842-1863 http://bit.ly/2JR9o5j
- North Carolina Runaway Slave Advertisements http://bit.ly/2JW7zEb
- Texas Runaway Slave Project http://bit.ly/2JR9yJX
- The Geography of Slavery (Virginia) https://at.virginia.edu/2JXLWmG (Will Thomas chimed in to note this site has been running since 2000 as well)
- Another Twitter account: Every Three Minutes (
@Every3Minutes) | Twitter http://bit.ly/2JXbwIQ - Coming soon: Freedom on the Move | Cornell University http://bit.ly/2J88GQ3 and Freedom On The Move (
@fotmproject) (@Ed_Baptist as PI) - Lagniappe – Erin Greenwald curated a groundbreaking exhibit at the Historic New Orleans Collection on the slave trade through and slavery in New Orleans. The Purchase Lives resource set is here Purchased Lives Annotated Resource Set http://bit.ly/2JRfaUl
Several Twitterstorians chimed in to add their additions and corrections:
- From Krystal Appiah — “This is the database is where I found the ad about the captured “fugitive” black man who had been living as a woman for a number of years.” http://slavery.msa.maryland.gov/ and
@LegacySlaveryMD:From Robin Katz: “For ideas on how to use runaway slave ads in a classroom, this exercise pairs ads wJohn Hope Franklin’s “Profile of a Runaway.” Students determine if individual ads illustrate or complicate his argument about the “typical” runaway:” http://www.teacharchives.org/exercises/runaway-slave-ads/ …Are we missing any? Add more in the comments.
Image Reference NW0325 Source Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-62797 Comments Reward of $ 200 for the return of a runaway family of 5; the father, mother, and 3 children. //$200 Reward. Ranway from the subscriber, on the night of Thursday, the 30th of September. FIVE NEGRO SLAVES, To-wit: one Negro man, his wife, and three children…” St. Louis, October 1, 1847 as shown on http://www.slaveryimages.org, compiled by Jerome Handler and Michael Tuite, and sponsored by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the University of Virginia Library. (Click image for details) http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/detailsKeyword.php?keyword=st.%20louis&recordCount=11&theRecord=7From Robin Katz: “For ideas on how to use runaway slave ads in a classroom, this exercise pairs ads wJohn Hope Franklin’s “Profile of a Runaway.” Students determine if individual ads illustrate or complicate his argument about the “typical” runaway:” http://www.teacharchives.org/exercises/runaway-slave-ads/ …Are we missing any? Add more in the comments.Image Reference NW0325 Source Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-62797 Comments Reward of $ 200 for the return of a runaway family of 5; the father, mother, and 3 children. //$200 Reward. Ranway from the subscriber, on the night of Thursday, the 30th of September. FIVE NEGRO SLAVES, To-wit: one Negro man, his wife, and three children…” St. Louis, October 1, 1847 as shown on http://www.slaveryimages.org, compiled by Jerome Handler and Michael Tuite, and sponsored by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the University of Virginia Library. (Click image for details) http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/detailsKeyword.php?keyword=st.%20louis&recordCount=11&theRecord=7
- Image Reference NW0325 Source Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-62797 Comments Reward of $ 200 for the return of a runaway family of 5; the father, mother, and 3 children. //$200 Reward. Ranway from the subscriber, on the night of Thursday, the 30th of September. FIVE NEGRO SLAVES, To-wit: one Negro man, his wife, and three children…” St. Louis, October 1, 1847 as shown on http://www.slaveryimages.org, compiled by Jerome Handler and Michael Tuite, and sponsored by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the University of Virginia Library. (Click image for details) http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/detailsKeyword.php?keyword=st.%20louis&recordCount=11&theRecord=7
- Image Reference NW0325 Source Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-62797 Comments Reward of $ 200 for the return of a runaway family of 5; the father, mother, and 3 children. //$200 Reward. Ranway from the subscriber, on the night of Thursday, the 30th of September. FIVE NEGRO SLAVES, To-wit: one Negro man, his wife, and three children…” St. Louis, October 1, 1847 as shown on http://www.slaveryimages.org, compiled by Jerome Handler and Michael Tuite, and sponsored by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the University of Virginia Library. (Click image for details) http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/detailsKeyword.php?keyword=st.%20louis&recordCount=11&theRecord=7
- From Robin Katz: “For ideas on how to use runaway slave ads in a classroom, this exercise pairs ads wJohn Hope Franklin’s “Profile of a Runaway.” Students determine if individual ads illustrate or complicate his argument about the “typical” runaway:” http://www.teacharchives.org/exercises/runaway-slave-ads/ …Are we missing any? Add more in the comments.Image Reference NW0325 Source Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-62797 Comments Reward of $ 200 for the return of a runaway family of 5; the father, mother, and 3 children. //$200 Reward. Ranway from the subscriber, on the night of Thursday, the 30th of September. FIVE NEGRO SLAVES, To-wit: one Negro man, his wife, and three children…” St. Louis, October 1, 1847 as shown on http://www.slaveryimages.org, compiled by Jerome Handler and Michael Tuite, and sponsored by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the University of Virginia Library. (Click image for details) http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/detailsKeyword.php?keyword=st.%20louis&recordCount=11&theRecord=7
From Robin Katz: “For ideas on how to use runaway slave ads in a classroom, this exercise pairs ads wJohn Hope Franklin’s “Profile of a Runaway.” Students determine if individual ads illustrate or complicate his argument about the “typical” runaway:” http://www.teacharchives.org/exercises/runaway-slave-ads/ …Are we missing any? Add more in the comments.
Image Reference NW0325 Source Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-62797 Comments Reward of $ 200 for the return of a runaway family of 5; the father, mother, and 3 children. //$200 Reward. Ranway from the subscriber, on the night of Thursday, the 30th of September. FIVE NEGRO SLAVES, To-wit: one Negro man, his wife, and three children…” St. Louis, October 1, 1847 as shown on http://www.slaveryimages.org, compiled by Jerome Handler and Michael Tuite, and sponsored by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the University of Virginia Library. (Click image for details) http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/detailsKeyword.php?keyword=st.%20louis&recordCount=11&theRecord=7
- and
@LegacySlaveryMD:From Robin Katz: “For ideas on how to use runaway slave ads in a classroom, this exercise pairs ads wJohn Hope Franklin’s “Profile of a Runaway.” Students determine if individual ads illustrate or complicate his argument about the “typical” runaway:” http://www.teacharchives.org/exercises/runaway-slave-ads/ …Are we missing any? Add more in the comments. Image Reference NW0325 Source Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-62797 Comments Reward of $ 200 for the return of a runaway family of 5; the father, mother, and 3 children. //$200 Reward. Ranway from the subscriber, on the night of Thursday, the 30th of September. FIVE NEGRO SLAVES, To-wit: one Negro man, his wife, and three children…” St. Louis, October 1, 1847 as shown on http://www.slaveryimages.org, compiled by Jerome Handler and Michael Tuite, and sponsored by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the University of Virginia Library. (Click image for details) http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/detailsKeyword.php?keyword=st.%20louis&recordCount=11&theRecord=7
From Robin Katz: “For ideas on how to use runaway slave ads in a classroom, this exercise pairs ads wJohn Hope Franklin’s “Profile of a Runaway.” Students determine if individual ads illustrate or complicate his argument about the “typical” runaway:” http://www.teacharchives.org/exercises/runaway-slave-ads/ …Are we missing any? Add more in the comments.
EDIT: Still adding –
- Louisiana Runaway Slave Advertisements, 1836-1865: http://louisianadigitallibrary.org/islandora/object/lsu-p16313coll80:collection
- Runaway Slaves in Britain :: Home https://www.runaways.gla.ac.uk/
Image Reference NW0325 Source Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-62797 Comments Reward of $ 200 for the return of a runaway family of 5; the father, mother, and 3 children. //$200 Reward. Ranway from the subscriber, on the night of Thursday, the 30th of September. FIVE NEGRO SLAVES, To-wit: one Negro man, his wife, and three children…” St. Louis, October 1, 1847 as shown on http://www.slaveryimages.org, compiled by Jerome Handler and Michael Tuite, and sponsored by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the University of Virginia Library. (Click image for details) http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/detailsKeyword.php?keyword=st.%20louis&recordCount=11&theRecord=7
#ADPhD 
ChroniclingAmerica.loc.gov is a massive, free archive of old newspapers from around the country. It’s searchable, but results are almost useless; better to just pick years and states and dive in. For instance, I’ve been finding runaway ads in almost every issue of this paper from Philadelphia, published in 1800-1801 – https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026272/issues/
Hi Eric. Thanks for the suggestions, I’d agree that strategic navigation is best. -jmj