Much addicted to strong drink and swearing: White Pennsylvania Runaways, 1769-1772

Compiled by Joseph Lee Boyle. Pennsylvania received one-tenth of all male indentured servants from the 1720s through the 1740s, and about one-fifth of the women in that period. According to one authority, over 67,000 German immigrants arrived at the busy port of Philadelphia from 1720 through 1760, at least half of whom were servants. Mr. BoyleÆs transcription of the runaway ads is taken from twenty-four different colonial newspapers, including papers from Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland, and New York, as well as one German-language tabloid. Paperback. Clearfield, 2016. 452 pages.