In this advertisement, published in the Virginia Gazette April 13, 1769, John Mayo seeks Tom, an enslaved man who Mayo claims self-emancipated into the Great Dismal Swamp. This is just one of the many newspaper advertisements that appeared in the late 1760s searching for enslaved people who had self-emancipated into the Great Dismal Swap, engaging in petit marronage. This is the second advertisement that Mayo placed for Tom’s return.
Cumberland, March 22, 1769.
Ran away from the subscriber, in April 1768, a likely young Negro man named Tom, near 6 feet high, and has lost part of one of his ears. It is thought he is about the Dismal Swamp, or low in North-Carolina. Whoever brings the said Negro shall have ten pounds reward.
