1778-08-20 Freedom Seeking: Prime

Identifier
NJS-EVE-01062
Source
Runaway ad for Prime (listed as Priam), by Absalom Bainbridge

Runaway ad for Prime (listed as Priam), by Absalom Bainbridge, "Two Guineas Reward. ," Royal Gazette , August 22, 1778, p. 3.
Event Description
On August 20th, 1778, Prime ran away from his enslaver, the Loyalist surgeon Absalom Bainbridge, who was at that time residing in Flatbush, Kings County, New York. Following his escape, Prime returned to Princeton, New Jersey, where he had previously resided with the Bainbridge family. He went on to work for the American troops and would eventually gain freedom for his service in the Revolutionary War.

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Transcript of the source document:

"Two Guineas Reward.
RUN away from the subscriber the 20th instant, a Mulatto Negro Boy, named PRIME, 23 years old, about five feet five or six inches high, his hair of a remarkable light colored woolly kind. Whoever secures said Boy: and will inform, or deliver him to the subscriber at Flatbush, Long-Island, or to Mr. John Taylor, in Queen Street, No. 15, shall be entitled to the above reward. All matters of vessels and inhabitants are forewarned to carry him off, or conceal him, as they ill answer to the consequences. A. BAINBRIDGE, Surgeon, N.J.V."
Event Type
Freedom Seeking
Date
August 20, 1778
Location of Event
Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York
Princeton
Primary Participants

Prime (b. 1755)
Person identifier: NJS-PER-02524
Role: Runaway
Age: 23
Status: Enslaved
Enslaver(s) of this participant:
- Absalom Bainbridge (1742-1807)
Verbatim description from source:
"Mulatto Negro Boy, named PRIME, 23 years old, about five feet five or six inches high, his hair of a remarkable light colored woolly kind"
Additional Participants

Absalom Bainbridge (1742-1807)
Person identifier: NJS-PER-02523
Role: Enslaver, Advertiser

John Taylor
Person identifier: NJS-PER-02525
Role: Agent for Enslaver
Comment: father-in-law of Absalom Bainbridge, listed as a point of contact for the enslaver in Queen Street, New York
Related Resource
Izzy Kasdin, "The Manumission of Prime," Princeton & Slavery Project.
Record Contributor
Indy Davis
Princeton & Slavery Project
Resource class
Event