Sydney Howard Gay’s "Record of Fugitives"

"The Runaway." A familiar image of a fugitive slave, this "stereotype cut" was produced in New York City for use in reward handbills distributed by owners of runaways, an illustration of the close commercial ties between New York and the antebellum South.

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On the following pages, researchers will find information on the individual slaves who feature in the Record of Fugitives. Each page lists the runaway slaves, and provides information on their owners. This section includes material about many of the owners culled from the manuscript U. S. Census and Canada West Census (both accessed via AncestryLibrary.Com), information about the fugitives in William Still’s records and his book, The Underground Railroad, and data from other sources.  It is by no means complete, and doubtless occasionally inaccurate, as the sources sometimes contradict each another.  The abbreviations should be self-explanatory, including “pers.” for personal property listed in the census, “real” for real property, “nr” for near, and “ch” for children.  Fugitive slaves frequently assumed new names on reaching the North – when recorded by Still or Gay, these are listed in parentheses.