Reading the Sources

George Washington placed these newspaper advertisements to try to recover enslaved people who escaped from Mount Vernon in 1761 and from Philadelphia in 1796. Today, we can read these ads for a different purpose: to learn about the lives of these individuals.

The ads contain information about the escapees, including descriptions of how they looked, the clothes they wore, and how they spoke. The ads also describe their characters, histories, and probable destinations.

See what you can discover by reading these sources.

Banner image: Maryland Gazette, August 20, 1761. Serial and Government Publications Division, Library of Congress