Reward

- Kevin Young

 

RUN AWAY from this sub-

scriber for the second time

are TWO NEGROES, viz. SMART,

an outlandish dark fellow

with his country marks

on his temples and bearing

the remarkable brand of my

name on his left breast, last

seen wearing an old ragged

negro cloth shirt and breeches

made of fearnought; also DIDO,

a likely young wench of a yellow

cast, born in cherrytime in this

parish, wearing a mixed coloured

coat with a bundle of clothes,

mostly blue, under her one good

arm. Both speak tolerable plain

English and may insist on being

called Cuffee and Khasa respect-

ively. Whoever shall deliver

the said goods to the gaoler

in Baton Rouge, or to the Sugar

House in the parish, shall receive

all reasonable charges plus

a genteel reward besides what

the law allows. In the mean

time all persons are strictly

forbid harbouring them, on pain

of being prosecuted to the utmost

rigour of the law. Ten guineas

will be paid to anyone who can

give intelligence of their being

harboured, employed, or enter-

tained by a white person upon

his sentence; five on conviction

of a black. All Masters of vessels

are warned against carrying them

out of state, as they may claim

to be free. If any of the above

Negroes return of their own

accord, they may still be for-

given by

                            ELIZABETH YOUNG.

Kevin Young, “Reward” from Most Way Home. Copyright © 2000 by Kevin Young. Reprinted with the permission of Zoland Books/Steerforth Press


Source: Most Way Home (Zoland Books, 2000)