increase in the number of African Americans running away, fighting with, or otherwise disobeying their masters fueled the growing animosity of elite whites toward free blacks. When a black woman named Patience refused to work, her master had her charged “with being a refractory and disorderly negroe woman who refuses to perform any kind of labour for her subsistence.”62 When an African American servant named Jantie left the service of Joseph Elton, she successfully evaded authorities for over a week. Upon her capture, she spent four days in the vagrancy ward before her enraged master had her “delivered to Mrs. Weed” at the prison for an undeclared charge—and a punishment we can scarcely imagine.63 Patience and Jantie were two of dozens of black women who challenged those who claimed possession of them, and got a brief taste of freedom, however elusive. The prison also served as a holding tank for those suspected of being slaves. One woman named Sall from Little Creek in Delaware was held for eleven months on the unconfirmed assumption that she was a slave.64 Masters had complete discretion over how long to leave slaves or servants locked up and how many lashes to have administered by the jailer.
The prison was not necessarily a totalizing institution of social control but could also serve as an intermediate space that constantly changed in response to challenges from within and without. Freedom was mediated through the prison in two directions. While the prison served as a tool of elites to manage a resistant labor force, workers also used the prison as a way to resist the abuses of servitude and conspire about ways to escape or to survive once released.65 Victorie ran away from John Imbert on July 29, 1795. She was captured and imprisoned under charge of being his slave. Authorities doubted this claim, and Mayor Hilary Baker called for an investigation and imprisonment of Victorie until a judge decided to release her. John Imbert reclaimed her on August 2nd, but she quickly ran away again, only to be re-imprisoned on August 3rd. Such determination to escape despite near certain capture suggests Victorie had a profound claim to freedom. These records of runaways, however, scarcely document the trauma and horrors experienced by those enslaved.66 The official reporting of runaways in the newspapers and court records are one-sided. They do not tell us why Victorie ran away or how she was feeling. But we can discern that for the enslaved Victorie, risking life in prison was better than life with John Imbert. She remained in prison for two months, possibly until he could find someone else to buy her time. While short of freedom, Victorie may have felt relief at the chance to get away from a much-hated abusive master.67 The prison could also serve as a safe haven from slaveholders. When four children ranging in age from four to twelve were discovered in the Washington City Jail, one jailer reported that the children’s aunt placed them there “to keep them out of the hands of a man, who wished to sell them as slaves.” Even though the conditions of the jail were horrid, and one of the children suffered with scant clothing and illness, their beloved relative felt this terrible circumstance gave them a better chance at life and freedom.68
The extent to which servants and slaves tried to shape their own fate in the face of great opposition was remarkable. Some servants ran away repeatedly or refused to leave prison to return to the home of their captor. When twelve-year-old Clarissa Morris ran away from Margaret Tucker of South Fourth Street, Tucker offered a one-dollar reward and reasonable charges for the return of Morris, a woman described as mulatto and objectified in an advertisement as having “frizzled hair, a good set of teeth, and is narrow visaged.”69 Once Tucker recovered Morris, Tucker decided to sell the remainder of her term of indenture to someone else. Tucker may have obscured Morris’s rebellious spirit when negotiating the sale, but it could not be suppressed for long.70 Morris ran away from her new master, George Springer. She again was picked up on vagrancy charges in February 1807 and sentenced to one month for running away.71 This group of women frustrated their owners so much that the latter relented in selling or trading them. Samuel Clarkson offered a five-dollar reward in the Philadelphia Gazette for the delivery of his servant Susanna Ware, whom he described as “an indented Irish servant, aged about 26 years, of a fair complection, her features rather coarse, she took with her several changes of clothes.”72 Ware enjoyed three weeks of freedom before being picked up and held on vagrancy charges in November 1795.73 Clarkson left her in prison for sixty days, signaling that he had lost control of her and resorted to extreme measures to discipline her. The fact that she stole from him extended her punishment and increased the likelihood that he would search for someone to buy or trade the remaining time of her indenture. Elizabeth Folmer ran away from her master Thomas Palmer and “remained absent six or seven weeks.”74 Similar to Morris and Ware were Anna Guster and George Roth, who ran away from a term of bound servitude on the farm of Charles Greguire.75 When captured, they refused to go back to his farm. He left them in prison, waiting for them to change their minds or for someone else to buy out their indentures. Roth eventually gave in and was discharged back to Greguire’s farm in December, but Anna held out for two more months.76 Even though the cards were stacked against them, each of these women got a taste of freedom. This process offered servants and slaves the hope of a different kind of life: a less abusive master, or one step closer to freedom.
Masters and mistresses were more likely to seek the assistance of the state in disciplining servants and slaves of African descent than the vast population of English and Irish servants, signaling their discomfort with controlling the African American members of their households and an expectation that the state would help them regulate its black residents.77 When African American Phebe Bowers allegedly “threaten[ed] the life of her mistress Rebecca Conway” she was punished by imprisonment without trial and denied bread for fourteen days.78 In 1790, over half of the masters and mistresses exercised their discretion to release their prisoners in less than the standard term of thirty days. For example, Mila was discharged after only four days. She was described as “the property of William Lewis, esq” and he ordered her discharge and delivery to a Mr Todd.79 Elizabeth Nen was held for only fifteen days, having run away from “her master” Henry Clanse.80 The conditions in prison were deplorable; inmates were often stripped of their clothing, minimally fed, and left to defecate in their own cells. Only the most refractory and uncontrollable of white servants were punished in this manner. When Elizabeth McCoy was charged with “obstinately refusing to obey the lawfull commands of her Mistress Mary Robinson,” she was imprisoned for only three days but denied bread.81 The harsher punishment of African Americans has several explanations. Whites consistently felt more entitled to black labor than they did to that of native born whites or even immigrants who might share their own European ancestry. For whites, slavery still reflected a financial investment, making the rebellion of a slave both a social and a financial threat, whereas servants could more easily be replaced. African Americans may have been more likely to attempt freedom than others—and were probably more often mistreated in the first place.
Women of both European and African ancestry were imprisoned together. Sarah Evans and Elizabeth Folmer both arrived on September 17, 1795. Evans received a very strict punishment upon escaping her apprenticeship to Joshua Peeling. She was kept in prison for four months before being discharged to the almshouse.82 One can only imagine her ordeal—and the stories she and other women would share during those four months. Elizabeth Folmer had it comparatively easy. Though she left her master Thomas Palmer, she was released from prison after two weeks. Even more importantly, she experienced “six or seven weeks” of freedom before being caught in the first place.83 When Evans and Folmer arrived, an enslaved woman named Jane was already there, serving thirty days on charges of “being a very refractory disobedient girl and of absenting herself from her mistress service.”84 When Margaret Mullen entered the prison on September 18th, she would have met a number of other runaways and possibly shared a room with Sarah, Elizabeth, or Jane. Mullen was bound to John Cardner and punished for five days for her attempt at escape.85 Despite the harsh conditions of the prison, the companionship of other young women who shared their plight may have been a welcome relief from the strict orders, overbearing meddling, or abuse of a master or mistress.
Men of wealth and political power were especially frustrated by the resistance and rebellion of their domestic help during this contentious period and were twice as likely as women to file charges for the punishment and capture of runaways.86 In 1791, Nance, was charged with