Difference between revisions of "HIST 131--Week 5 Questions/Comments"
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(→Advertisements for Runaway Slaves in ''VA and SC Gazette'', 1737-1745) |
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I was wondering how much the rewards for the run away slaves were worth relative to todays monitary standards? The rewards generally seemed to be somewhere between 10 and 40 shillings. Just to get a better idea of how much the slave owners were willing to pay for the return of a runaway.--Helen Dinndorf | I was wondering how much the rewards for the run away slaves were worth relative to todays monitary standards? The rewards generally seemed to be somewhere between 10 and 40 shillings. Just to get a better idea of how much the slave owners were willing to pay for the return of a runaway.--Helen Dinndorf | ||
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| + | I find it interesting to note the differences in the money offered in Thomas Wright’s for each of the slaves. At first I suspected that the amount of money correlated to how useful the slave had been, but then I noticed a different pattern. It seems to me that Wright is offering more money the longer each of the slaves have been missing. For example, the slave missing the longest (two years) has the largest reward offered, while the slaves missing only a month or so have the least money offered for their return. Why would this be? Is it a matter of pride in that Wright is determined to get them back and so offers more and more money the longer they are gone, or could it be that he feels safe offering more money the longer they are gone because he feels there is less chance of them being returned, and thus having to pay the money? ~Kristen Lonsdorf | ||
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| + | Also, Thomas Wright seems to have a lot of slaves go missing at pretty regular intervals. Either he was dull-witted and an easy master to escape from, or he was particularly harsh and many of his slaves felt it was worth the risk of running away. Which makes me wonder if his female slaves also left and he just did not care enough to try to get them back? ~Kristen Lonsdorf | ||
== Alexander Thomson, A Scottish immigrant writes new from America, 1774 == | == Alexander Thomson, A Scottish immigrant writes new from America, 1774 == | ||
