Runaway Slave Notices

The two images below were scanned from microfilm images of the Richmond Daily Dispatch, which was founded in 1850, and exists still today as the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the major daily paper in the Virginia capital.  The wartime issues may be accessed online, here.  While the text of the two advertisements is fairly clear, transcriptions are given beside the images.
Note the dates---while Col. Oates can perhaps be forgiven for thinking that the Confederacy might yet prevail, given the situation in early August of 1864, the Confederacy's situation in mid-February, 1865, was simply dire.
It is best to let the documents speak for themselves, but an important observation is worth making here:  With the Confederacy---and its dreams of a slaveholding empire---on the rocks of defeat and ruin, the faith of Col. Oates and Mr. Langhorne in the future of the institution is simply astounding, and argues strongly that slavery was not, as is often said, "declining" or "on the way out." 

August 6, 1864
500 DOLLARS reward---Ran away from me, at Petersburg, on the 25th June, 1864, my man William.  He is about 5 feet 7 or 8 inches high, yellow copper color sharp features, straight built, weighs about 120 pounds and about 20 years old.  Said boy was raised in Richmond and formerly belonged to Col. Poindexter   He was sold to Thomas A Powell of Montgomery, Alabama, last winter.  He is supposed to be about the city or passing in the army as a free boy.  I will pay the above reward for his apprehension or delivery and confinement in prison.

Colonel W C Oates.
Law’s Brigade

                                                 


February 14, 1865


One thousand dollars reward---Ran away from Camp Winder Hospital, on the 15th of January last, my BOY, DANIEL  I will pay the above reward for return to me, in the city, or lodgment in the city jail, with notice.  His age is twenty-one; height, five feet six inches.  He is very black, with a pleasant face and large eyes; is knock-kneed, and has a swaggering, shuffling walk.
GEORGE W. LANGHORNE,
Eleventh and Marshall streets, Richmond


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Source:  Online scans of the Richmond Daily Dispatch

Date added to website:  June 26, 2022