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Auction: 314 - Numismatic Collector's Series Sale
Lot: 1125

$40 Reward For Runaway Term Slaves Washington, George Unanimously chosen First President of the United States under the new constitution, taking the oath of office in New York City on April 30, 1789, and serving until 1797; during the Revolutionary War, Commander of all Continental Armies. Exceptional content Manuscript Document Signed "Go: Washington," 1 page small 4to, Fairfax County, Virginia, April 20, 1775. Washington advertises for two term slaves "Runaway from the Subscriber...Thomas Spears...He is 5 feet 6-1/2 inches high slender made...hair short, light grey or blue eyses - a little pock m[marked] and well freckled. He was born in Bristol.... [and] William Webster, a Scotchman 30 odd years of age...He is about five feet 6 inches hight & well ma[de] with light brown hair short & a round face...Whoever apprehends the said servants & delivers them to me at my dwelling place in Fairfax County shal receive the above reward of Forty Dollars or Twenty Dollars for each." On verso is a receipt for eight dollars to Mr. Joseph [Hart?], one of the men who apprehended the servants, signed on the future President´s behalf by his brother, "John Washington" on April 24. Loss along entire right side, with about 1/8 of the document out, affecting mainly the headline and the first two lines of text, as well as the terminal "n" of Washington´s signature. With partial fold splits, three paper repairs on verso, and spindle hole in upper left, otherwise in fair to good condition, with extant text fully legible. Contained between two panes of glass in a painted wooden frame, overall size 8-1/4" x 9-1/4". William Webster, a convict, was indentured for a term of seven years, beginning in 1774, primarily to work at Washington´s holdins on the Ohio River under overseer Valentine Crawford. Almost immediately after being purchased the previous March, Webster escaped and was brought back in late April 1774. Apparently it was his season for doing so, for this advertisement comes almost exactly a year later. On the present occasion, Washington´s account book shows that he advanced money on April 20, 1775 to Thomas Allison "in pursuit of Servts." It also shows three reward payments on the 29th for runaway servants, one each to William Johnson and Thomas Johnson, and a third who goes unnamed, and was presumably the recipient of the $8 paid out here. Washington is well known to have had an uneasy conscience with regard to his slaves, whom he freed in his will. The same surely did not apply to term slaves like Webster and Spears, convicts who had forfeited their own liberty and would be released from service after seven years. Rather than sending his own slaves, Washington purchased the men for Crawfords´ expedition because they were skilled; Spears was a joiner and Webster a brick maker.

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