Like some who study history, I am also a collector of the past. In my downtime, I can be as guilty as the next person who browses eBay for documents and such things that might go (hopefully) unnoticed to the next set of eyes. Doing so can be rewarding and frustrating (looking at you ‘last second bidder’). But regardless if you purchase something cool or not, the search for interesting artifacts can sometimes reveal interesting stories.
Take this newspaper ad from the Aurora General Advertiser, a Philadelphia newspaper, dated, Wednesday, April 30, 1800:
“40 DOLLARS REWARD, Ran away from the plantation of the subscriber about ten miles from the city of Baltimore, and two from Webster’s tavern, on the post road leading to said city, two Irish indentured servant men, who arrived in the brig Paragon, Capt. Whitmore, from Cork, in August last, and who are supposed to have gone into the State of Pennsylvania - one named Michael Colbert who went away on Sunday the 23rd of February last, about 5 foot 6 inches, high, dark eyes, speaks bad English, in the west of Ireland dialect, took with him the following clothing: one broad cloth blue coat, one waistcoat with blue spots, and one with yellow stripes, one round jacket and trousers of dark mixed cloth, two shirts, a linen working frock, & beaver hat - The other named John Cuff, who went off in the month of Sept. last, about 5 feet 8 inches high, ruddy fair complexion, stout made, light brown hair and blue eyes, speaks much in the west of Ireland dialect. Twenty dollars reward will be paid on delivery of each of the above described men at the plantation by ROBERT COURTENAY, Baltimore County, March 11”
Now for some, this might sound mundane or whiff of “so what?” What caught my interest is how illuminating this advertisement is on many fronts. For one, it is widely acknowledged that indentured servitude had taken a much noticeable backseat to chattel slavery by the turn of the nineteenth century. During the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, slavery importing Africans was still a developing institution. Whereas indentured servitude, which for a period confined the imprisoned and undesirable booted from England into sentenced labor in North America, was far more prevalent than chattel slavery until about 1710. Of course, this would drastically change in the following decades, and by 1800 there was no longer any comparison of the two. However, this advertisement from April 30, 1800 shows us a couple of things:
First, indentured servitude still indeed existed. And what’s more, it existed on plantations in the South (Maryland) at a time when the norm would have been to employ enslaved black Americans to do such work. Is it possible this Mr. Courtenay was an abolitionist who nonetheless needed help on his plantation? Second, the descriptions laid out in the ad are eerily similar to those ads for runaway slaves. The two runaways here are to be seen as criminals, with the ad offering a detailed account of their appearances, what they allegedly stole, and their nationality. And this brings us to the third point: as much as we rightly focus on prejudice directed at African Americans during this time, we see here that similar prejudices could be as wantonly directed at fellow Europeans viewed as “lesser-than.” Note the description of how Mr. Colbert speaks, “bad English in the west of Ireland dialect,” a distinct shot at Irish immigrants who in 1800 were still a very small minority within the United States, and who would remain vilified for decades as ‘troublemakers, scoundrels, drunks,’ etc.; a form of language similarly used or directed at black Americans who were deemed nuisances. And lastly, one of the men, Mr. Cuff, allegedly ran off the previous September, a full six months from when this ad first appeared in print (March 11). This leads me to believe Mr. Courtenay’s pride had been hit, and he likely would have stopped at nothing to see these two men apprehended. Such too were the feelings of slave owners who sought out runaways. While these two Irish men cannot be compared to people held in bondage, the similarities are nonetheless evident by this newspaper advertisement.