A couple of months ago there was an article in my local paper that described a situation in a nearby middle school. The social studies teacher had included creating a newspaper advertisement for a runaway slave as one of the independent activities available to students for extra credit. Several parents objected and the principal ordered the teacher to remove the project from the list. As a former high school teacher of social studies (not in the district referred to) I found myself conflicted. I would really appreciate comments from readers about whether you think such a project is appropriate and acceptable.

SOME CONTEXT: From a historian’s point of view it has been very difficult to find primary sources in connection with the slave population. Clothing is not likely to exist as it was usually worn out and discarded. Written accounts by enslaved workers in colonial America and later in the United States are rare. Few slaves could read or write; teaching them to do so was a crime in several states. References in plantation account books were usually limited to the sex and age of the slave, perhaps the name, date of acquisition, and the purchase or sale price. Census listings were equally limited. There are precious few details about how enslaved workers looked and dressed, what their lives were like, what skills they possessed.
Ironically ads for runaway slaves often provide answers to these questions because owners not only posted a reward for the return of the “absconded,” a word that was commonly used, but often provided a description of the runaway: color, height and stature, clothing worn and other information. Historians have been working to create archives of advertisements for runaway slaves. Joshua Rothman, a historian at the University of Alabama has said: “They [owners] wanted to provide as much detail about their appearance, their life story, how they carried themselves, what they were wearing . . . Each one of these things [ads for runaway slaves] is sort of a little biography.”

Transcription of the ad: New London, May 16, 1768. Stolen or Run-away from the subscriber, on the 14th Instant (of May), a Negro Woman named SOBINER, between 30 and 40 Years of Age, of a slender Body, and middling Stature, talks good English, and can read well; carried off with her one homespun check’d Woolen Gown, one blue and white striped Linen Ditto, two Linen Shirts, and one Woolen Ditto, three check’d Aprons, two or three pair Woolen Stockings, one quilted Coat, one Side brown, the other striped, a red short Cloak, a chipt Hatt, a Pair white Woolen Mittins, a Cambric Handkerchief, several Caps, and sundry other Articles. Whoever takes up and secures said Negro, so that her Mistress may have her again, shall receive FOUR DOLLARS Reward, if found within twenty Miles of this Place, and FIVE DOLLARS if further, and all necessary Charges paid by LUCRETIA PROCTER. N.B. All Persons are forbid entertaining or concealing said Negro under Penalty of the Law.

I chose the ad above because it was placed in a Connecticut newspaper and shows that slavery was more common in the North than we are likely to admit. And I believe that the list of particular clothing in the ad for Sobiner is due to the fact that the slave owner was a woman.

Back to the use of runaway ads in the social studies curriculum. While readers may have mixed feelings about a student-created ad as a project, I hope that there would be little objection to a teacher’s using several ads as a topic for discussion and critical evaluation in class. Students could look up the numbers of runaways, discuss motives, the risks involved, destinations, penalties for those who helped them, the likelihood of capture, etc. And they could evaluate the ads as primary sources of information: are they accurate, representative, useful, historically significant?

This SITE is the source for the quotation and provides information on this subject as does this SITE. The above ad is one of the many compiled for a PROJECT by students at Wesleyan.

In the 18th century girls at a very young age made SAMPLERS which served not only to master stitches but also to learn numbers and the letters of the alphabet and to reinforce religious beliefs and ideas of proper behavior.

ELIZABETH RHODES of Rhode Island made
this sampler during the decade 1770-1780.
Simple in design, it features the alphabet
and numbers from one to ten, and includes
her initials. She used a cross stitch on
linen fabric.

(Courtesy of the Rhode Island Historical Society.)

MARTHA GRAY. who lived in Philadelphia, was between seven and nine years old when she created the beautiful sampler on the right (1779). She used wool thread in cross and tent stitches on open hole canvas, not woven fabric. Quite an accomplishment for one so young.

(Credit: Daughters of the American Republic Museum.)

In 1789, HESTER VANDERBURGH of New Rochelle, New York made the above sampler with a religious motif. Pictured in a domestic setting that includes a house; two trees, one of which is laden with apples; birds; a dog and a deer; are two figures most likely intended to portray Adam and Eve. The twelve-year-old girl used silk thread worked in a cross stitch.

(In the DAR Museum.)

BETSEY CHASE, in 1789, using cotton thread worked in a cross stitch on linen fabric, copied a verse intended to remind her of her mortality. On the top and bottom is the alphabet. The words in the center are “Betsey Chase age ten years now in the bloom of youth prepare for death.” Nice thought!! No information about where she lived.

(At the Rhode Island Historical Society)

See other samplers HERE.

One of the accomplishments expected of proper young girls was skill with a needle. From an early age they applied themselves either in school or under the direction of a female family member. Below are some examples of their embroidery. Not in the words of women, but this time in the hands of women.

This beautiful piece of
embroidery was made by
SARAH WISTAR, a Quaker
girl from Philadelphia,
in 1752 when she was
between 13 and 15 years
old. The flowering tree
and the bird are obvious.
Look for the rabbit under
the tree.
Owned by Winterthur.

SARAH DERBY from Salem, Massachusetts, embroidered this silk and paint landscape triptych some time between 1763-1766 at the age 19 or 20. Owned by Winterthur.

ANN FLOWER, from Philadelphia,
embroidered the gorgeous coat
of arms (on the right) in 1763
when she was 19 or 20 years old.
Owned by Winterthur.

RACHEL THAXTER of Hingham Massachusetts embroidered the charming scene on the left in 1796 when she was only 10-12 years old. Owned by Winterthur.

Do browse other examples of embroidery from this ARCHIVE.

Readers, you have been introduced to MILCAH MARTHA MOORE as the author of a commonplace book into which she transcribed poems and letters by women she admired, a book which circulated among her friends. After the Revolution, Moore, who was a Quaker, published a book that became one of the most popular collections of readings for use in schools, entitled Miscellanies, Moral and Instructive. She included in the Preface Benjamin Franklin’s comment: “A BOOK containing so many well chosen sentiments, and excellent instructions, put into the hands of our children, cannot but be highly useful to the rising generation.” Moore established a school for indigent girls in Montgomery County and taught there until her death in 1829. She left an endowment to the school. Following are a few excerpts from the book.

BEAUTY is a short-lived flower, which is easily withered. A cultivated mind is a treasure which increases every moment; it is a rich soil, which brings forth a hundred fold.

THAT little incendiary, called the tongue, is more venomous than a poisoned arrow; and more killing than a two-edged sword.

THE use of learning is not to procure popular applause, or excite vain admiration; but to make the possessor more virtuous and useful to society, and his virtue a more conspicuous example to those that are illiterate.

WHO is wise? He that learns from every one. Who is powerful? He that governs his passions. Who is rich? He that is content.

WE often overlook the blessings which are in our possession, to hunt after those which are out of our reach.

Book, published in 1787, digitized by Google from the library of the New York Public Library and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user tpb. It may be viewed HERE. Quoted material can be found on pp. iv, 10, 17, 35, and 50.

MILCAH MARTHA MOORE must have thought the following extract from the travel diary of ELIZABETH GRAEME was worth recording, and perhaps pondering it. And no doubt discussing it with friends in her circle. This piece in which Graeme muses on her future life is touching especially when we know what actually happened to her. There is no mention of a man. Graeme was in fact courted by William Franklin, son of Benjamin. He proposed to her and she accepted. But he went to England and met someone there whom he married instead. She met her future husband at one of her “Attic evenings.” Graeme married Henry Hugh Fergusson, eleven years her junior and penniless, without the approval of her father, or the Society of Friends which expelled her.

I know not what my future State of life is to be, but was I to form a Wish it should not be I think Extravagant. I am not particularly attached to any Spot, but while some dear Friends live, I hope it to be in Philad[elphi]a. Health I look to be the Basis on which we found all earthly Blessings—A Conscience void of Offence as to gross Crimes (for as to Faults & Foibles, no Life is unsullied with them), A Society of Friends who Actions are guided by Affection, Chearfulness, Probity & Good-sense—perhaps if I go any further, you will think me unreasonable in Demands, but this writing diverts me, & I will go on.—The Article of Climate I will give up, we must supply the Deficiencies of that by Contrivance, but them Fortune must be favourable to furnish a warm good House in the Winter, & airy pretty Gardens in the Summer—The Garden for many Reasons I cannot give up, I do not wish for a fortune that would not require Oeconomy, he that saves in nothing is a mad man, he that saves in all Things a Fool—every Person has some particular Taste to gratify which others whose Turns do not lay the same way call Whims & Singularity, but the indulging these Whims & Singularitys, frequently constitute the greatest Pleasure of our Lives, & while they incommode nobody, are not to be restrained.—The Command of our Time is a pleasing Circumstance, but that depends so much on the Station we are placed in, that I dare not make it a Preliminary, however, our Sex have a greater Chance of obtaining it as the Public has no Demands on us, it is the noble Lordly Creature Man, whose Heart must glow, & Head toil for his Country for you know some Author says A Woman’s Glory is to shine unknown.

As for the Pleasure of relieving the distressed, & all that—People as frequently lose the Pleasure, as they obtain the Means, so that I shall say nothing on that Score—If you disapprove my Plan, write a better, in the mean Time I wish you all the above good Things.
31st of May 1765.

Perhaps “the Public has no demands on [women]” as Graeme claims but the demands she made on herself were substantial. She was intelligent and educated (at home), hosted one of the most famous literary salons in Philadelphia, wrote well-crafted petitions to the state of Pennsylvania to recover Graeme Park which had been confiscated as loyalist property, translated classic literature, wrote poetry, and maintained connections with other women.

Her political indiscretions during the Revolution saddened her friends and provided fuel for her enemies. She let herself be used by her loyalist husband Henry to deliver a letter to George Washington urging him to surrender. (Washington expressed his dismay at her involvement.) She also carried an offer of 10,000 guineas to Joseph Reed, an aide to Washington, for his help in obtaining a peace treaty favorable to Britain. When Her loyalist husband went to England she stayed behind to try to regain Graeme Park. She never saw him again. Although Graeme’s reputation was tarnished she continued to write and indeed produced a great body of work, among which was the poem “The Deserted Wife.”

Milcah Martha Moore’s Book: A Commonplace Book from Revolutionary America edited by Catherine La Courreye Blecki and Karen A. Wulf (University Park, Pennsylvania: Penn State University Press, 1997), pp 206-207.