By 1753, most frontier Indians had switched over to French pay and were no longer recovering escaped servants and might even be expected to accept some into their ranks. Thefts, especially of clothes, have increased among the runaways marking these attempts as well-planned. We are told that indentured servitude was apprenticeship, which was a lie. We are also told that service was, mild, not slavery and ended at the age of majority. However, as the frontier that many of these people “runagates” as Benjamin Franklin—a runaway himself—called them, escaped to, became a killing ground hunted by savage warriors, these people escaped like never before. The servants’ conditions must have been bad indeed.

This table also discloses another lie. Supposedly—according numerous modern explanations of white servant conditions in Colonial America [ a lie itself, for it was not Colonial America but Plantation America], boys were released at age 21 and girls younger. Why then, do we have 21-year-olds listed in this fateful year?

Sweeting, Nathaniel MG, 28 June 1753

Hughes, Richard, stole boat. MG, 19 July 1753

Griffin, Lewis, stole boat [obviously with Richard Hughes] MG, 19 July 1753

Kemp, William MG, 19 July 1753

Weldon, John MG, 2 Aug. 1753

Mills, Thomas, stole clothes [1] MG, 2 Aug. 1753

Knight, Thomas, stole clothes [1] MG, 2 Aug. 1753

Young, Anne MG, 2 Aug. 1753

Davis, Joseph, stole a boat [2] MG, 2 Aug. 1753

German, Edward, stole a boat [2] MG, 2 Aug. 1753

Mahoney, Darby MG, 9 Aug. 1753

Allen, George MG, 9 Aug. 1753

Combs, Bartholomew, stole a horse [3], MG, 16 Aug. 1753

Illett, Francis, stole a horse [3], MG, 16 Aug. 1753

Corbett, Peter, stole a horse [3] MG, 16 Aug. 1753

Lowry, Nicholas MG, 16 Aug. 1753

Richardson, Joseph (same as Joseph

Rylan) 21 years old MG, 16 Aug. 1753

Fox, John MG, 30 Aug. 1753

Macfall, James stole clothes, MG, 30 Aug. 1753

M’Koy, Robert, stole money and clothes, MG, 6 Sept. 1753

Gordon, John MG, 20 Sept. 1753

Rylan, Joseph (same as Joseph Richardson) 21 years old MG, 20 Sept. 1753

Hackett, John, stole clothes, MG, 4 Oct. 1753

French, Michael, Baltimore, John Hall& Jacob Giles,

stole clothes, MG, 18 Oct. 1753 [4]

Branann, Jamesn, Baltimore, John Hall & Jacob Giles,

stole clothes MG, 18 Oct. 1753 [4]

Tader, Henry, Baltimore, John Hall & Jacob Giles

MG, 18 Oct. 1753 [4]

Ellis, Thomas, Kent [Island] Thomas Day, iron collar MG, 15 Nov. 1753 [5]

1. Steeling clothes in August? Our boys must have been headed to the hills.

2. Boat stealing was obviously a two-person operation. Since Frederick’s Douglas’s plan to escape from this same watershed some 80 years later, initially involved stealing a boat, he had confided in fellow slaves who betrayed him.

3. These three look suspiciously like a band of accomplices.

4. It seems that the unpaid workforce of Hall & Giles took a big hit on October 18.

5. Swimming the Kent Narrows in November with an iron collar on his neck must have been rough.