Slave narratives, as a genre of literature, played an important role in abolitionism. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the best-selling novel of the 19th century, ultimately laid the groundwork for the American Civil War. The genre usually does not include runaway ads, because they were written by slave owners to protect slavery itself. However, since these ads told the first stories about slaves and their seizure of freedom, they are, in fact, the first slave narratives.[1] By studying them as part of the genre, we can examine the different effects that print media had exerted upon public confidence in slavery.
This printed poster is one such ad (figure 1). It was written by A. D. Wroe of Prince William County, VA. Wroe promised a $300 reward for the capture of two runaways, Enoch and Charles Chinn. The crease marks suggest that it had been folded. The text of the ad, including a physical description of the runaways, is quoted below. The typographical and textual choices made in this poster denies Enoch and Charles Chin, its subjects, humanity and reduce them to their physicality, as well as capital made human.
Figure 1. An image of the poster
“Ran away from Free-Stone Point, Prince William County, Virginia, on the 10th inst., Enoch and Charles Chinn. I will give you $200 if taken in Virginia, and $300 if taken in the District of Columbia, Maryland or Pennsylvania. Enoch is a dark copper-color, about 37 years of age, about 5 feet 8 to 10 inches high, and has lost several of his front teeth. Charles is about 3[illegible] years of age, about 6 feet high, and has a very pleasant countenance, and has lost some of his front teeth.”
What strikes a viewer first about this poster is the $300 reward, which takes up half the poster (figure 2). The subject at hand is the money and not the runaways themselves. This emphasis on the reward objectifies the freedom seekers entirely. They are no longer the Chinns, but simply a walking, talking, breathing sum of $300.
Figure 2. Detail of the reward. Note the bolded and upsized typeface of the reward.
The absence of possessions described is remarkable. According to Linda Baumgarten, one out of eight runaway ads mention trousers alone, not to mention other items taken or worn at the time of escape.[2] (It is highly unlikely that the Chinns left without clothing or possessions of any kind.) Compare the description to another ad (figure 3) which includes a much more robust description, with name, age, height, build, color, different physical injuries, previous workplace, and multiple articles of clothing.[3]
Figure 3. Another ad for two runaways in Virginia, printed in a newspaper.
The fact that Wroe did not mention their abilities or personalities raises questions as well. As with clothing, it is highly unlikely that these men did not possess any skills or ways to present themselves. However, to Wroe, they are simply labour to be put to use, not self-actualizing people with purpose.
To further understand the dehumanization of the Chinns, let’s look at description of a runaway named George in Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
“A well-dressed, gentlemanly man sat on the seat… His well-formed aquiline nose, straight thin lips, and the admirable contour of his finely-formed limbs, impressed the whole company instantly with the idea of something uncommon. He walked easily in among the company…”[4]
The words Stowe used—gentlemanly, admirable, uncommon—do not simply describe George’s physicality. They suggest beauty, grace, and status. They describe the person that George aspires to be: a freeman. However, the existence of such a person is constantly denied by runaway advertisements, including the poster we examine here. In contrast with this quote, the description of the Chinns does not present men. They have become things to be traded and sold.
By studying this poster and other runaway ads, we can begin to map the complex and contradictory effects of print upon slavery and abolitionism. To quote Waldstreicher, “there is much more to the story of slavery and antislavery than rise and decline, acceptance and resistance, or South and North.”[5] Indeed, the story told through these intertwined narratives demonstrate the interdependence of politics, culture, and race in U.S. history–North and South alike.
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[1] David Waldstreicher, “Reading the Runaways: Self-Fashioning, Print Culture, and Confidence in Slavery in the Eighteenth-Century Mid-Atlantic” (1999), 247.
[2] Linda Baumgarten, “Clothes for the People: Slave Clothing in Early Virginia” (Virginia: 1988), 24.
[3] Courtesy of Freedom on the Move. Originally Richmond Enquirer, 1/11/1839. Accessed February 28, 2020.
[4] Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. (Gutenberg: 2006)
[5] Waldstreicher, 271.