Twenty Dollars Reward [runaway ad for Elsy Murray]

Twenty Dollars Reward [runaway ad for Elsy Murray]

Elsy Murray, a 20-year-old black woman, ran away from slaveholder Peter Bogart in Princeton on February 13, 1818. Elsy Murray could read well and had a pass for 2 days. She had a brother near Piscataway, and the slaveholder supposed that someone harbored her around that area. In April, Peter Bogart offered a reward of $20 for Elsy Murray's capture and also proposed to sell Murray "for a reasonable price" if she was captured. This notice was published in the New Brunswick Fredonian on May 14, 1818, when Murray had been gone from her master's household for 3 months.

1818-05-14

English

Twenty Dollars Reward.
RAN AWAY, from the subscriber, in Princeton, on the 13th February last, a female negro slave named Elsy Murray, about 20 years of age, 5 feet 6 or 7 inches high, of about the middle grade of blackness; reads very well, and is intelligent—Had on when she went away a red plaid gingham gown, Germantown shawl, green silk bonnet, and plum colored shoes.
She had a pass for two days only, and is believed to be in the neighborhood of Piscataway as she had a brother living in that quarter. All persons are forwarned harboring her at their peril. Any persons apprehending her and lodging her in any gaol in this state so that the subscriber may get her again, shall receive the above reward.
PETER BOGART.
April 30. tf.
N.B. The subscriber will sell the above slave for reasonable price; she is an excellent house wench.

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