We created two datasets about fugitives and captives in eighteenth-century Jamaica, one of the most violent systems of racial bondage in the Atlantic World. To produce the first dataset as an Excel file, we organized and recorded information contained in hundreds of newspaper advertisements offering rewards for the return of escaped slaves in Jamaica between 1718 and 1795. While there are some gaps in the records because of missing newspapers, there are still a considerable number of advertisements included. One feature of the ads is that many identify the African ethnicity of runaway and captured slaves. The second dataset also consists of information from newspaper notices about escapees who had been captured and confined to Workhouses between 1790 and 1795. We relied on the advertisements edited and transcribed by Professor Douglas B. Chambers (and others in his project) and made them available online https://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00021144/00001. More information about the project and the ads is available at https://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00021144/00001/citation Anthony Wood, currently a PhD in history at the University of Michigan, did most of the hard work of coding. Professor Billy G. Smith checked the results to eliminate mistakes.

This dataset is a part of the Magazine of American Datasets (MEAD). To view more of the collection, visit https://repository.upenn.edu/exhibits/orgunit/mead.