Forgotten slaves of Scotland revealed through newspaper adverts

Yet this was not the plantations of the American Deep South, or the sugar and tobacco farms of the West Indies, but Scotland in the 18th century, where slavery was legal and practised from the Highlands to the Central Belt. 

The stories of those kept in bondage have mostly long been forgotten as the part played by Scots in the slave trade and as slave owners was airbrushed from history.

READ MORE: How Scotland grew rich on the slave trade

Yet now a tantalising glimpse of one of the darkest episodes in the nation’s past has been opened with a new database created by academics at the University of Glasgow documenting hundreds of adverts placed in newspapers across the UK seeking the return of runaway slaves. 

Slaves were shipped from Africa in brutal conditions

Found alongside notices for mundane items such as corsets for sale or carts for hire, those published in newspapers such as the Glasgow Mercury and the Edinburgh Evening Courant exhort Scots to apprehend escaped ‘Negroes’ - both men and women - along with their name, a physical description and an offer of a reward. 

Most runaways were of African descent, though a small number were from the Indian sub-continent and a very few were Indigenous Americans. 

READ MORE: Academic exposes Scotland's shameful links to the slave trade

Seen from the far remove of the 21st century, some adverts are stunning in their matter-of-fact cruelty. One, from the Courant, talks of an 18-year-old woman named Ann who escaped from her Glasgow owner in February, 1727. 

It says: “Run away on the 7th instant from Dr Gustavus Brown’s Lodgings in Glasgow, a Negro Woman, named Ann, being about 18 Years of Age, with a green Gown and a Brass Collar about her Neck, on which are engraved these words [“Gustavus Brown in Dalkieth his Negro, 1726.”] 

“Whoever apprehends her, so as she may be recovered, shall have two Guineas Reward, and necessary Charges allowed by Laurence Dinwiddie Junior Merchant in Glasgow, or by James Mitchelson Jeweller in Edinburgh.”

Another, from the same newspaper but published in December 1746, appeals for the capture of a “Negroe man, about 22 Years of Age,” who escaped from the Royal Infirmary.

The notice describes the runaway slave as “pretty tall, newly recovered of the Small-pox”. adding has been branded “on the Shoulder G. M.”
A third calls for the imprisonment of a “black slave” named Caesar who was “bred a cook” and absconded from the house of a Col. Munro in Novar, Rossshire, offering a reward of five guineas for his capture, a considerable amount of money for the time. 

© Special Collections/ The Mitchell Library/Museums and Collections/Glasgow Life

© The British Library Board and British Newspaper Archives

Another example from 1720 uncovered in the National Library of Scotland details the taking of a slave on the run and an appeal for his master to come forward.

It says: “Taken up a Strolling Negro, who ever owns him, and gives Sufficient Marks of his being theirs before the End of two Weeks after the Date hereof, to Mr. Andrew Ramsay Merchant in Glasgow, may have him again upon Payment of Expences laid out on him, otherwise the present Possessor will dispose of him at his Pleasure.”

Slavery was banned on Scottish soil in 1778,  although this did not prevent many Scots from growing rich in the trade by taking African slaves to America and returning with sugar and tobacco.

READ MORE: Historians call for pupils to be taught about Scotland's role in the slave trade

These include John Glassford, a wealthy Glaswegian tobacco merchant who lived in the Shawfield Mansion just off the Trongate.

A  portrait painted in 1767 and now owned by the City Council depicted him and his family with a black 'manservant' visible behind him, later painted out. 

The Glassford family, 1767. Pic Glasgow City Council

Professor Simon Newman, Professor of History at the University’s College of Arts, who headed up Runaway Slaves in Britain project, said slaves were brought to Scotland by wealthy families who had made their fortunes owning plantations, or who had been involved in the slave trade, and were seen as status symbols. 

Prof Newman added: “We do not have the words or sometimes even the names of bound or enslaved people who were brought to 18th century Britain.

 “These advertisements are important because they remind us that slavery was routine and unremarkable in Britain during the first three-quarters of the 18th century. 

“This is made very clear by the placement of these newspaper notices offering enslaved people for sale or seeking the recapture and return of enslaved runaways.”

He added: “Slavery was not an institution restricted to the Caribbean, America or South Asia, and these short newspaper notices bring to life the enslaved individuals who lived, worked, and who attempted to escape into British society.

“This is an important resource for the understanding of slavery and telling the stories of the enslaved and slavery in Britain.”

© The British Library Board and British Newspaper Archives