Tales of Captivity and Runaway Advertisements

                        Tales of Captivity and Runaway Advertisements

During the early exploration period and colonial period in the New World, many different peoples and their cultures clashed as they all sought to gain advantages over the others and to simply survive another day. This stretched from the Native Americans kidnapping people for technological needs (such as medical knowledge) and their later need for money to the conflict between master and servant shown in early American newspapers.

        The earliest record the Indians taking captives of other peoples is the story of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca told in 1542. De Vaca was a Spanish explorer who was looking into the Gulf Coast region of North America and was taken in April of 1528 by Indians and was expected to perform the position of a physician, as these natives had only progressed to cauterization, or he would otherwise be killed.^[1] The next record, and the most gruesome, is of Father Isaac Jogues in 1647.^[2] He was a French missionary sent by the catholic church to spread the faith of God to the “savages” in North America.^[3] Father Jogues was traveling along the Saint Lawrence river with a group of recent converts from the Huron tribe before being ambushed and taken captive by the vicious Mohawk tribe.^[4] The captures proceeded to brutally torture Father Jogues and kill only the Huron tribesmen (“…Hardly had he pronounced these words when they beat him to death.”) as Father Jogues and his other two country men were bartering tools towards nearby French forts (“they (the Mohawks) thought to find more moderation at our forts, on account of us…”).^[5] The last and most well-known document is by the early colonist Mary Rowlandson in 1682, which is significant because of both the experience she went through and the fact that it was the first captivity narrative which main character was a woman.^[6] She first spoke of a dreadful raid which took the life of one of her children, her brother in law, and her sister, before continuing to describe the polygamist living of her captures who forced her to work on the Sabbath but did not directly harm her due to her value for ransom.^[7] Looking at these documents, it can be seen that there is an evolution of the way people perceived the natives and North America. It starts off as a place to explore and conquer, seeing the Indians as peoples in need of higher society and culture (“We laughed at what they did, telling them it was folly... (Indian healers) and then sucks about the wound…Our method was to bless the sick…).^[8] This view changes over time to relate the Indians to demons in the torture and treatment of the captives (“…they squeezed and twisted with a rage of Demons”), which included everything from mutilation and the cutting off fingers (“…They burned one of my fingers, and crushed another with their teeth…”) to running the “gauntlet” (having people stand in two lines side by side and having people run or walk in between while being beaten).^[9] Lastly is the tamer and most recent story of Mary Rowlandson, speaking not only of the detriments of the natives, such as polygamy(“My master had three squaws…”), but also so far as to appreciate the process of bartering trade she partook in before being released (“Then came an Indian and asked me to knit him three pairs of stockins, for which I had a hat and a silk handkerchief”).^[10]

        The next few documents deal with early slavery in north America, the three most prominent of which are runaway advertisements which appeared in the Boston Evening Post August 1st,1748, The Pennsylvania Gazette November 29th, 1764, as well as the Virginia Gazette August 11th, 1766.  The first information of note is that each colony uses it’s own currency (…all necessary charges, in Old Tenor Money…), and that would affect how far a slave or servant could run before any money they had stolen would make them noticeable.^[11] Secondly, it is illegal for a citizen to help a slave or servant escape (“…all Masters of Vessels are upon their Peril forbid concealing or carrying off said servant.”)^[12] This is since a slave was property and the act would be considered theft, while an indentured servant is seen as in debt to their master under contract.^[13] Next, during the early era of slave ownership in the colonies, there seems to be a certain amount of humanity still attributed to the slaves as they are referenced as servants even though they were legally property (‘… a negro man… Servant…”).^[14] In the early half of the 1760’s there is the thinning of indentured servants under contract (indentured servants signed a contract pledging to be servants for a certain amount of time in exchange for passage to the colonies or a debt being payed off) and a move towards African slaves.^[15] Indentured Servants were harder to keep, as they looked and usually spoke like the colonists and assimilated well into the culture and space around them^[16]. African slaves were easier to pick out and match to physical descriptions as well as standing out due to language and cultural barriers.^[17] In the latter half of the 1760’s there is a solid move to African slaves and an abandonment of indentured servants, as well as much harsher treatments towards runaway slaves. Outlawing slaves becomes a prominent deterrent and punishment towards those who try and escape (…slave is outlawed, I do hereby offer a reward… to any person that will kill and destroy him…”).^[18] In being outlawed, a slave is a threat to public safety and has a bounty put on their head along with a dead or alive order.^[19] Owners who wanted to make an example of a slave or decide that an escaped slave is no longer worth keeping, would pay more for evidence of a slave’s death than to have the slave returned alive (slave is outlawed, I do hereby offer a reward of E5 to any person that will kill and destroy him, and 40s if taken alive.”) Also, during this time, the Africans purchased were strictly property and either seen as subhuman or in need of being civilized through service as seen from the way they are written about during this time (“as the said slave… tolerable good shoemaker…”).^[20]