August 13, 1776

This advertisement for an enslaved woman who ran away on July 30, 1776, provides interesting details about her—not only her physical characteristics, but her life during wartime. Maria self-emancipated from New Jersey and her enslaver believed she may have gone to Philadelphia or New York. Supposedly, her goal was to reach New York because she was going “after a married white man,” who was a “soldier in the Continental army there.” Maria was around thirty-five years old and she “left behind her three young children,” as well as “a good master and mistress,” though it is impossible to know if she would have described them as such. The advertisement noted that she was light skinned and “hardly discernable from a white woman.” This information was important for her enslaver to include along with the description of what she was wearing when she ran away and her connection to a white soldier. Maria may have been able to escape notice by passing—not as a white woman, but as a white man, because she wore “white ticken breeches” and “an old beaver hat.”

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

IN MENS CLOTHES.

RAN AWAY the 30th July last, from the Jerseys to Philadelphia or New-York, a Mulatto woman slave, named MARIA, had on a white or red and white jacket, white ticken breeches, white stockings, old shoes, and an old beaver hat; she is hardly discernable from a white woman, of a thin visage, middle size, thick legs, long black hair, and is about 35 years old: She has left behind her three young children, a good master and mistress, and is going towards New-York after a married white man, who is a soldier in the Continental army there. Whoever secures the said Mulatto in jail, and will immediately advertise the same in this paper, shall have Four Dollars reward.