My research mission for the summer was to track down individual stories of women from escaped from slavery or indentured servitude and ran to the French and Indian or American Revolutionary war. After completing the research portion I was going to catalog each story into different categories and create a digital exhibit out of it. Although I was not able to complete the exhibit to its full potential, I was able to find a promising lead story and fellow names that could evolve into stories one day.
The sources I used throughout my research included books: Had on and Took with Her, Clothing in Female Runaway Servant Advertisements from the Pennsylvania Evening Post (later the Pennsylvania Evening Post and Daily Advertiser) by Sue Huesken & Karen Mullian; Smooth Tongued and Deceitful White New Jersey Runaways (1767-1783) by Joseph Lee Boyle; and Running from Bondage, enslaved women and their remarkable fights for freedom in revolutionary America by Karen Cook Bell. I also relied on multiple research sites such as: Ancestry.com, The National Archives, Valley Forge Archives, Pennsylvania Archives, John Rees articles, The Huntington Digital Collection and an article “Black Women and American Freedom in Revolutionary America” by Karen Cook Bell.
The women that I found were all located in the Pennsylvania Evening Post, see chart below.
Name | Descriptors | Age/Reward | Master | Date | Notes |
Lena Kime | Dutch Servant | 30, $8 | Moses Bryan | June 3rd, 1777 | Ran to enlist in the 5th Battalion w/ husband |
Jennet Stenenson/Steinson | Scotch servant | N/a, $8 | Thomas Robbins | July 15, 1777 | Ran to camp w/ Thomas Cook, came w/ proctor's artillery |
Anne Powell | White servant | N/a, 2&1* | John Bartram | July 15, 1777 | Fond of soldiers, supposed she joined the army |
No name | short, brown hair, barefoot | N/a, $10 | Adam Parker* | August 1778 | Follower of the Army, thief |
Joe & wife and baby | African slaves | 30, 18, $2,000 | Ebenezer Blackly | December 22, 1780 | Ran to the PA 2nd regiment, stole horses, & discharge papers under the name of William Nelson |
* 2 shillings and 1 sixpence; * Jonathan Gess & Joseph Vandyke
The one woman who I was able to trace down the most information on was Lena Kime and her husband Andrew Kime. Lena and Andrew are first mentioned in a runaway advertisement located within the Pennsylvania Evening Post on June 3rd 1777. I started by cross-referencing the last name of Kime with the muster roll of the Pennsylvania 5th Regiment, and found an enlisted Andrew Kime under Benjamin Bartholomew’s company. Andrew enlisted May 7th or 8th (conflicting sources) of the year 1777. The most logical reasoning is that Andrew ran first to make sure he could enlist and have a place to run to and then return for his wife Lena. You can find his enlistment records in Vol 3: Continental Line, 5th Pennsylvania regiment series on pages 46,60,70, and 81.
In catalog records from the national archives, I found records of Andrew being “sick in hospital” from August 7th 1777 to December 10th 1777. One theory I had was that Andrew was sick during the winter of Valley Forge in 1777, but after reaching out to the archives at Valley Forge nothing could be found of Andrew or Lena. Other records say that Andrew was sick in hospital from September 6th and October 10th 1777, which rules out him being injured in the battle of Brandywine on September 16th. The Society of Cincinnati manuscript has records of revolutionary “flying hospitals” and the one page of the Pennsylvania 5th has been torn out of the book.
It is also noted that Andrew is back on duty November 4th 1777 and again on August 3rd 1778. There is a note of his return in September on the 9th in 1778. Andrew then went back on duty on November 16, 1778. Throughout his time serving I have noted that he was being paid for his service. He received pay on: January 1st, October 2nd, October 9th, November 7th, November 16th during the year 1778. He continued serving and being paid during 1779 being paid only on may 5th. There are two last pay rolls listed for April 1780 and November 10th 1784. Andrew did receive a blanket, shoes, and one pair of overalls during his time of service. There is nothing noted in the national archives of extra pay or rations for a spouse.
Andrew is listed as being in Valley Forge from March 3rd through April 2nd 1778. This would be my next lead to follow up with the archives at Valley Forge for any records of Kime being stationed there. He was also stationed at Mill Stone from February 24th through April 14th 1779, which is another notable lead to follow.
The purpose of following the leads on Andrew is that there is a hope of some documentation that his wife was with him. The biggest hope would be that she enlisted herself to also receive pay. Another lead would be to check smallpox inoculation records to see if/when/where Andrew got inoculated when he entered the army. It should be noted that there is a lot to uncover about this story, and I intend to continue to do so over time.
The other names found in the runaway advertisements have been untraceable. I have not been able to find any record of them or of any other connections to them. The next most permissible lead is Jennet Stenenson for her correlation with Thomas Cook. Thomas Cook was well documented and is known to have kept diaries. It would be interesting to get my hands on some of his records to see if he ever recorded an encounter with Jennet.
Anne Powell was also a dead end due to the fact that I was not able to track down her master to see if he kept records of his slaves. If I was able to obtain those records I could have been able to decipher if Anne actually got away or if she was captured. There was no trace of a woman by the name of Anne Powell living in or around Kingsess Philadelphia during the revolutionary period. I still have hope that her master can theoretically be tracked. If his records are able to be found, there is a likelihood that a story about Anne could also be discovered.
My nameless woman and family of runaway slaves were the hardest to track since their lives weren’t recorded. I tried researching the woman’s multiple masters to see if there was a record of a runaway that fit her description and time period. I had a great deal of difficulty trying to find records of the men themselves and eventually put a pin in this lead for another time. For the slave by the name of Joe and his recorded wife and child, I turned to archival sites designed to find African ancestors, more specifically those who were enslaved. The sites proved a dead end since I did not have enough information about Joe and his family themselves. I then turned to the 2nd Pennsylvania regiment records in search for a discharge paper of William nelson. These are the papers the family allegedly stole and most likely assumed the identity of William nelson. There was no record of a man by the name of William nelson enlisted in the 2nd Pennsylvania regiment, but I do not believe that this case is ultimately closed. I want to relook at William nelson and use the National Archives online records to see if I can find anything on this man. If I am able to track William there is a possibility that in reality I am tracking Joe and family. There is a great possibility in this lead that I believe an incredible story is awaiting to be found.
My next steps and plans of action are to continue to follow my possible leads in Andrew Kime, Thomas Cook, and William Nelson. They should be the easiest to track due to their ties with the revolution. I also plan to continue to research via the Valley Forge Archives, Pennsylvania State Archives (once they reopen) and the National Archives. The research that I am trying to do can only go so far from my computer, but being able to be in person with an archivist might help me see the things that I am missing. I will continue to log my research and keep in touch with the Old barracks of my findings with hope that one day these stories can be turned into an exhibit. I believe that there is really something here laying just underneath the surface that could lead to breakthroughs of conversation about women and their experiences during the revolutionary war. Karen Cook Bell summarizes it best in her book “that enslaved women’s desire for freedom for themselves and their children propelled them to flee slavery during the Revolutionary War, a time when lack of oversight, and opportunity due to the presence of British troops, created spaces for them to invoke the same philosophical arguments of liberty that White revolutionaries made in their own fierce struggle against oppression.”
By: Keli Ganey
Summer June 1st - August 10th 2022
Bibliography
“To George Washington from Captains Thomas Bartholomew Bowen and Benjamin Bartholomew, 25 May 1779,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-20-02-0556.
[Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 20, 8 April–31 May 1779, ed. Edward G. Lengel. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010, pp. 609–611.]
Huesken, Sue, Karen Mullian, and Benjamin Towne. 1995. “Had on and Took with Her” : Clothing in Female Runaway Servant Advertisements from the Pennsylvania Evening Post, Later the Pennsylvania Evening Post and Daily Advertiser, as Published by Benjamin Towne of Philadelphia between 1775 and 1784. Palmyra, Nj: Sk Shortgown Research.
Joseph Lee Boyle. 2019. “Smooth Tongued and Deceitful” : White New Jersey Runaways, 1767-1783. Baltimore, Maryland: Clearfield Company.
Karen Cook Bell. 2021a. Running from Bondage : Enslaved Women and Their Remarkable Fight for Freedom in Revolutionary America. Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, Ny: Cambridge University Press.
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