Mar 25, 2021 - Sale 2562

Sale 2562 - Lot 14

Price Realized: $ 1,188
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,200 - $ 1,800
(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) Runaway advertisement for "Marcus, one of the House Servants at Mount Vernon," in an issue of the Philadelphia Gazette & Daily Advertiser. 4 pages, 21 x 13 inches, on one folding sheet; stitch holes, 4 small puncture holes not near Mount Vernon text, horizontal fold; uncut. Philadelphia, 21 January 1801

Additional Details

The very last item in the bottom corner of the final page is an advertisement: "Marcus, one of the House Servants at Mount Vernon, absconded on the second instant, and since has not been heard of. He is a young lad, about 16 years of age, a bright mulatto, dark blue eyes, long black hair, about 5 feet 4 or 5 inches high, and of a slender make. . . . It is very probable he may attempt to pass for one of those negroes that did belong to the late Gen. Washington, and whom Mrs. Washington intends in the fall of this year to liberate. . . . He is one of those negroes which belong to the estate of Washington Custis, Esq., and held by right of dower by Mrs. Washington during her life." The notice is signed in type by James Anderson, the plantation manager at Mount Vernon.

This issue also includes another slavery-related notice on page 3, offering for sale "a Negro girl, about 12 years of age, has 9 years to serve," offered by a sea captain whose ship was waiting at the dock.