Throughout the eighteenth century, newspapers advertised servants, slaves, soldiers, spouses and others who had fled from contractual obligations. The advertisements give us remarkable textual descriptions of everyday individuals about whom little else is known. Each day this week, we’ll present an advertisement for a runaway woman, accompanied by an illustration of carefully researched, handmade clothing modeled to represent how the person may have looked.
One Hundred Dollars Reward. Ran away on Monday morning the 20th instant, an Irish servant girl named Jane Smith, about five feet six inches high, black hair, a down look, remarkably freckled in her face; had on and took with her, a striped short gown, striped lincey petticoat, a pair of new stockings, new shoes, and a new check handkerchief: She stole and took with her a dark grey cloak almost new, a green bonnet with a white ribbond round it, a pair of silver shoe buckles, a pair of white mitts, and about forty dollars in Continental money. Whoever takes up the said servant and secures her in any gaol in this State, so that her master may have her again, shall have the above reward, and reasonable charges if brought home, paid by Jacob Keehmle. N.B. The above Jane Smith is a noted thief, and was concerned in a great robbery in July last. [Pennsylvania Packet, January 1, 1780]