Wilmington, Delaware was the shipment center for white chattel bound to serve in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and Northeast Maryland.
October 15, 1767
The Pennsylvania Gazette
SIX POUNDS Reward.
RUN away, on Monday, the 17th of August, from the subscriber, living near Newark, New Castle county, the following servants, viz.
John Bryn, an Irishman, aged about 25 years, 5 feet 7 or 8 inches high, an arch fellow, [1] being an old soldier in the American expeditions, both to the westward and northward, a ropemaker by trade, given much to drink and s[w]earing, and trembles very much with his hands, blind of the left eye, but open and clear; [2]
and as he is a tolerable good scholar, probably will write passes for himself and the others, and will be apt to talk about New Castle and Wilmington, as he is well known in both places, has short black hair, lately cut short before, a midling slim built fellow;
had on a tow shirt, striped linen trowsers, on old spotted jacket, no shoes nor hat known of. [3]
The other an Irishman, named John Milighen, aged about 26 years, 5 feet 9 or 10 inches high, given to drink, and swears when in liquor, is a good butcher, having served a time to that trade in Ireland, a midling set fellow, thin faced;
had on a tow shirt, tow petticoat trowsers, striped linen jacket, and a pair of new shoes, tied with thongs, has a down look when spoke to, with often repeating the word Sir, and stroking his hair back, with this hat off, and looking downwards. [4]
Whoever takes up and secures said servants, so as their master may have them again, shall have the above reward, paid by JOSHUA McDOWELL.
Notes
1. An arch fellow, in this context, is taken to mean a leader among his peers, based on his skills, experience and learning.
2. It seems that War has taken a terrible toll of this young man.
3. No hat or shoes, homeless, on the eve of winter, during The Little Ice Age. If white slavery was the benign trade school of the New World that establishment historians continually babble about, why would a man who has suffered much, escape into the cold night with neither shoes or hat?
4. These are signs of a man who has suffered severe, corporal punishment and verbal abuse at the hands of is betters.
These runaways were merely some of tens of thousands who escaped under harsh conditions from something Americans have been led to believe was humane and beneficial, a voluntary employment contract signed—mostly by those who could not read or write?
A Bright Shining Lie at Dusk
A Partial Exhumation of the American Dream
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