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Sheriff's Sale.
By virtue of a writ of Venditioni Exponas, issued out of Allegany county court and to me directed, against Theodosia Morrison, Adm'x, and Lewis F. Klipstine, Adm'r, of John Morrison, deceased, at the suit of the State of Maryland use of Mary Hammill and Nancy Hammill, I will sell for cash, at James Parris' tavern, in Western Port—
On Saturday the 7th day of January 1832,
Two Negro Boys,
named SAUL and BRICE, seized and taken as the property of said Theodosia Morrison, Adm'x, and Lewis F. Klipstine. Adm'r, of John Morrison deceased, to satisfy said claims.
MOSES RAWLINGS,
Sheriff Of Allegany county.
Sheriff's Office, Dec. 21
This slave sale notice for "Saul and Brice" appeared in The Advocate, Cumberland, Maryland, Wednesday, January 11, 1832. The slave notices appeared in the back of The Advocate in a section called "The Allegany Advertiser" which featured all types of ads for things to buy and sell.
Prior to the Civil War, Maryland had a law which stated that if a freed black came into slave territory from elsewhere he could be fined $20. A second offense warranted a fine of $500. If the fine could not be paid, the person could be auctioned off as a slave to raise the money. The Maryland Advocate, printed in Cumberland in the late 1820's and 1830's often listed runaway slave notices. The Alleganian newspaper, well into the late 1840's, also printed notices of rewards for runaway slaves, editorials blasting abolitionists, and advertisements for public sales of "Land and Negroes".
From the collection of Albert and Angela Feldstein.