He has a wife, a free woman.

by Lisa Y. Henderson

$50 REWARD.  ABSCONDED about the last of October, from the subscriber, at that time residing in Stokes County, N. Carolina, my Negro man COLEMAN, about 27 and 28 years of age, and of a very bright complexion.  He is a Shoemaker by trade, has a very bushy head of hair, a thin visage, is spare built and weighs from 135 to 140 pounds.  He has a very large scar on one of his legs near the ankle, believed to be on the right leg, also a scar on each arm just below the elbow occasioned by a burn.  His heels have been frosted, which injury has left scars upon them.  Coleman has a wife (a free woman) near Blakeley, N. Carolina, and it is probable that he may be in that direction, although many persons believe that he was decoyed off by a white man, named Joshua Young, who left the neighborhood about the same time for Indiana.  I will give a reward of Fifty Dollars to any one who will deliver Coleman to me near Brook Neal in Campbell County Va. or will confine him in jail, so that I get him in my possession.   RICHARD OVERSTREET.  Brook Neal, Campbell cty, Va. December 21, 1838

Carolina Watchman, Salisbury, 24 January 1840. NC Newspaper Digitization Project, North Carolina State Archives Historic Newspaper Archive.