The Persistence of Indigenous Enslavement in Early America, 1704–1804

Although the scholarship on Native American enslavement in early American colonies has proliferated over the past few decades, a persistent myth continues in much of the scholarship regarding its presence (or absence) in the eighteenth century. In almost all regions – from New England to the Carolinas – the story is much the same: Indigenous enslavement quickly faded away up due to a combination of local laws prohibiting it (Virginia) or the large-scale importation of enslaved Africans (New England, New York, the Carolinas, and elsewhere). But is this really what happened?

One way to measure the presence of Indigenous slaves and servants in the eighteenth century is through a systematic examination of colonial newspaper “runaway slave” / self-emancipated ads. This poster will present in graphic form the tabulated results of the examination of close to 9,000 advertisements related to Indigenous people between 1704 and 1804. Such a study reveals a surprising trend: Indigenous appear in newspapers in unfree situations in greater, not less, frequency after 1720. A close examination of these advertisements also reveals important trends and in terms of gender, racial designations, and varieties of slavery, servitude, and unfreedom. All of these data points will be presented in graphs and other visual representations, with summaries, definitions, descriptions, methodologies, and questions in narrative form.