(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION) Runaway slave advertisement illustra

Sale 2471 - Lot 19

Price Realized: $ 625

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

Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200

(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) Runaway slave advertisement illustrated with "A Good Likeness of Sancho," in a full issue of the Columbian Centinel. 4 pages, 20 x 14 inches, on one folding sheet; foxing, folds. Boston, 7 October 1807

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Sancho escaped from a Mississippi plantation and was presumed to have made his way north. His owner ran this advertisement in distant Boston, offering a reward of up to $100 for his return. Sancho is described as "a Negro man, about 30 years of age, about 5 feet high, very black complexion . . . & a fast walker." Sancho was said to be a skilled barber and "was born and educated in his Master's house"; he was thought to be so loyal that he must have "been inveigled away by some artful villains for their own use." Winthrop Sargent (1753-1820), who wrote and submitted the notice, was a Massachusetts native and former Revolutionary War officer who had served as governor of Mississippi Territory and then settled down to operate a plantation in Natchez, MS. While runaway ads were common in newspapers of this era, few were illustrated. This particular ad, which ran for a few days in late September and early October of 1807, is one of the better-known ones. The National Portrait Gallery acquired one, giving Sancho a permanent home among the nation's most famous faces.