(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION) Berry Zachariah 100 Dollars Reward R

Sale 2503 - Lot 37

Price Realized: $ 9,375

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

Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000

(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) Berry, Zachariah. 100 Dollars Reward: Ranaway . . . Negro Man Luke, Commonly Called Luke Williams. Letterpress broadside, 18 1/2 x 12 1/4 inches, on yellow paper, with docketing on verso; minor wear, a bit of dampstaining on bottom edge, spot-mounted on later paper. [Upper Marlboro, MD]: Marlboro Gazette, 7 May 1857

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Additional Details

A runaway slave broadside offering more than the usual information. Escapee Luke Williams is described as "very black, about 25 years old, five feet high, prominent projecting forehead; has a slight scar over one of his eyes; speaks quickly when spoken to; has a thin suit of whiskers and mustache." The locations of his relatives in Philadelphia and elsewhere in Maryland are given. The slave-owner signs his name as "Zachariah Berry (of W.)," presumably the son of major planter Washington Berry (1790-1856). He gives his address as "near the Brick Church, Forest of Prince George's County, Md." No other examples of this broadside have been traced; the Clements Library at the University of Michigan holds a facsimile of this example which was published in Mull's "The Underground Railroad in Michigan," page 38.