Newspapers and Slavery
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A fugitive slave ad from the November 24, 1804, issue of the Columbian Museum & Savannah Advertiser. These ads often included detailed information about slaves seeking freedom. Jacob, in this example, had previously been enslaved in the West Indies and was a trained hair dresser.
Courtesy of Georgia Newspaper Project, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
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As this fugitive slave ad from the June 11, 1817, issue of the Augusta Chronicle illustrates, enslaved families often escaped together in hope of a better life in the North.
Courtesy of Georgia Newspaper Project, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
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A fugitive slave ad from the February 12, 1862, issue of the Daily Morning News in Savannah. The ad describes William and Charles who escaped, ironically, from Liberty County, Georgia.
Courtesy of Georgia Newspaper Project, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
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Frontispiece image of disguised fugitive slave Ellen Craft from Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom; or, the Escape of William and Ellen Craft from Slavery, published in 1860. The Crafts escaped from slavery in Macon and found freedom in Philadelphia in December 1848.
Courtesy of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library, Documenting the American South.
The daily life and experiences of enslaved African Americans received very little coverage in Georgia's newspapers, save for one notable exception: advertisements that offered rewards for the return of self-liberated African Americans. These "fugitive slave ads" were a major source of income for newspaper publishers in Georgia and can be traced back to the first issue of the Georgia Gazette in 1763, which included several notices offering rewards for the return of fugitives from slavery. The purpose of the ads was to provide a description suitable for the identification and recapture of enslaved people. As a result, they often included detailed descriptions, including names, ages, physical descriptions, family members, methods of escape, skills, life experiences, and even places of birth—information that provides a valuable record of enslavement and its grisly toll. They also commonly included descriptions of scars and injuries, illustrating the abuse suffered by many of those seeking freedom. The ubiquity of these ads in Georgia newspapers demonstrates both the economic impact of slavery in the antebellum South and the widespread determination among the enslaved to experience a life free from bondage.