Two people, a teenager and a young man escaped from slavery. It was an especially risky time to escape, as there was no safe place to live in, as all thirteen colonies were slave-holding. The two likely travelled in a different direction to find freedom: to the port of Salem to hire themselves onto a sea-going ship. Ship captains were eager to hire any man, slave or free, Black or white.
A Teenager, Peter, Escaped to Freedom
In 1767, a sixteen-year-old boy (or shall we call him a man?) escaped to freedom. He had been one of eight people Captain Henry Sewall, Esq. had enslaved. Peter was never heard from again. Ironically, Sewall was the grandson of Judge Samuel Sewall who in 1700 had published the first tract opposing slavery.
Prince, an Enslaved Man, Took his Independence…
Prince risked his life so the United States could win its War of Independence. On April 19 th 1775 he marched to fight at the Battle of Lexington, along with his enslaver Joshua Boylston. (Boylston St. bears this Boylston’s name.) Prince’s name appears on the plaque at the entrance to Town Hall that honors the Lexington soldiers. Four years after the battle, Prince took his own independence and never returned to Brookline.
Note that both ads remind the readers that it was illegal for anyone to assist these young men in their escape. |