(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION) A Good Likeness of Sancho a Negro

Sale 2308 - Lot 31

Price Realized: $ 1,800

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200

(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) "A Good Likeness of Sancho a Negro." A woodcut (2 x 1-1/8 inches) with a five inch long description in an advertisement for a runaway slave appearing in the Columbian Sentinel for October 7, 1807. Four pages folio, removed from a larger volume. Boston, 1807

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The owner of Sancho, the runaway slave in this rather elaborate newspaper advertisement was Winthrop Sargent (1753-1820), American patriot and officer in the Revolution, politician, writer, member of the Federalist Party and Governor of the Mississippi Territory. What makes this advertisement so extraordinary is Sargent's belief that perhaps Sancho might have been carried off and not runaway at all. Sargent is effusive in his statement of affection for Sancho on behalf of the entire family as well as the other servants. "He had learned the trade of a Barber and is in every respect a most accomplished servant for a gentleman or a family; was born and educated in his master's house; endeared to him and his mistress and his own wife and children, as well as the numerous blacks of his Master's Plantations, by long, affectionate and faithful service." He states that if Sancho did runaway, and voluntarily came home, he would be welcomed with open arms and no punishment. However, if he did indeed flee, Sargent is offering $50 to the person who returns him---and "no expense will be spared to punish those who might be harboring him."