April 22, 1776

Thomas Dewees was the jailor in Philadelphia in 1776, and he was also the son of the sheriff of Philadelphia County. Many newspaper advertisements related to crime and property, including self-emancipated laborers, bear the name of either Thomas or his father, William. In this example, Thomas Dewees explained that, in January, a Black man named John Brown had been “committed” to his “custody.” Brown claimed that, a decade earlier, he had run away from Joseph Milburn in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, near where the Potomac River meets the Chesapeake Bay. Dewees sent Milburn multiple letters, but received no response. His next recourse was this advertisement, giving Milburn notice that “unless he comes, pays charges and takes him away,” Brown would be “sold for the same in one month from this date.”

Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet or, the General Advertiser
Printed by John Dunlap

Philadelphia, April 20, 1776.

ON the 29th of January last was committed to my custody, a certain Negro Man by the name of JOHN BROWN, who says he ran away from Joseph Milburn, in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, about ten years ago: And as I have sent several letters to acquaint his master thereof, I now publicly advertise and give notice to his master, that unless he comes, pays charges and takes him away, he will be sold for the same in one month from this date, by 

THOMAS DEWEES, Gaoler.