Very Rare. Not in ESTC the only copy in OCLC is a microfilm copy at the American Antiquarian Society. An advertisement with almost the same text as this handbill was published in Thomas Greenleaf’s New York Journal & Patriotic Register on September 12th 1792.
A shocking and very rare handbill which illustrates the very challenging lives of apprentices in 18th-century America.
This broadside, printed three months after Coe had absconded, announces the date of Jesse’s disappearance (17th of June 1792], his height (“five feet four or six inches”), and other identifying features: “near sighted, has a cast in his eyes, and stoops when he walks. Had on, when he went away, a new fustian coat and trowsers, and a striped silk and cotton waistcoat.”
Leverich suggests that Coe, “As he has worked some years at the black-smith’s trade, it is probable he may endeavor to hire himself as a journeyman to this business, in New-York, or its vicinity. Whoever will secure said apprentice, so that his master may get him again, shall be entitled to the above reward, and all reasonable charges.” The broadside also warns that “Masters of vessels are forbid carrying off said apprentice, and all others of employing him, at their peril.”
The language of this handbill is what we might expect from an advertisement for a runaway back slave but it is clear that Coe was a white apprentice who had absconded from his master, Edward Leverich (1763-1835)
