In The Words of Others…

Virginia Gazette
(Purdie), Williamsburg,
September 27, 1776

RUN away from my quarter on Carter’s run, some time in May last, a negro wench named WINNEY; she is about 5 feet 3 or 4 inches high, and of a yellowish complexion. The clothes she commonly wore were a striped Virginia cloth jacket and petticoat, her shift of our own manufactory, and of two thread; but as she took with her a great variety of clothes, I imagine she will frequently change her dress, being an artful subtle wench. She ran away 4 years ago, and got into Maryland, near Port Tobacco, where she passed for a free woman, and hired herself in that neighbourhood several months. Whoever will deliver the said wench to me in Fauquier county, near the courthouse, or to my overseer Thomas Neavill, on Carter's run, in the said county, shall receive a reward of 5£. besides what the law allows, and all reasonable charges paid.

NPS Ethnography Program