You are here
Back to topWives, Slaves, and Servant Girls: Advertisements for Female Runaways in American Newspapers, 1770–1783 (Paperback)
$22.00
Email or call for price
Email or call for price
Description
A Surprising Source of Information About a Largely Forgotten Segment of the Colonial Population
In an age when individuals could be owned by others, people were lost and found just like other property. Indentured servants and slaves absconded from the custody of their masters, and their value prompted the masters to seek their return. Wives ran from abusive husbands or into the arms of another. Newspapers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries carried large numbers of advertisements offering rewards for the return of runaways or announcing the detention of fugitives. Each ad provided a description of the individual and often included some circumstances of their elopement. The overall effectiveness of these advertisements cannot be measured, but the sheer number of ads suggests they were perceived as useful tools by those who placed them. What could not have been known at the time was the substantial contribution to history that these ads make. The descriptive advertisements provide textual snapshots of thousands of individuals who would otherwise be lost to history, people whose names might not otherwise be recorded. In Wives, Slaves, and Servant Girls: Advertisements for Female Runaways in American Newspapers, 1770–1783, historian Don N. Hagist focuses on the American Revolutionary period to provide a striking portrait of a substantial but largely forgotten segment of the population. Comprised of four hundred advertisements presented chronologically, the volume provides invaluable descriptions of women’s clothes, footwear, jewelry, physical appearances, education, nationalities, occupations, and other details.
About the Author
DON N. HAGIST is editor of the Journal of the American Revolution. A noted expert on the British army in the American Revolution as well as an authority on using archival resources of the period, he is the author of a number of books and articles, including British Soldiers, American War: Voices of the American Revolution and The Revolution’s Last Men: The Stories Behind the Photographs, both available from Westholme Publishing.