# 6: The Most Astounding Runaway Advertisement I Have Ever Seen: part two of two
Dipping into some archival documents and books on line and I can report a bit of relevant background-
Bell was known in Tennessee as the “Iron Master of Tennessee” and was a tremendously successful manufacturing entrepreneur who came to enslave some 300 or so individuals at various points in time and frequently hired teams of enslaved laborers from other places for special large projects. Some puzzling facts about Bell: he reportedly hired a teacher to teach at least some of the enslaved people to read and write (perhaps Joe Hall was one of them?). Since he regularly needed people with some engineering skills it might explain why he encouraged such literacy. At one point he names a specially designed iron furnace (Worley’s furnace) after one of the enslaved laborers who had worked on it. Might this be evidence of his familiarity and respect for last names among the people he kept in bondage? Who knows? It could have been condescending or done in mockery.
Evidently Bell was a litigious man with a keen sense of retributive justice; he shows up in dozens of court cases over debts, breach of contracts or and land disputes. This might inform analysis of why and how he spent so much time pursuing runaways (he posted other advertisements in earlier years tracking down people, as well).
Bell sent groups of enslaved people to Liberia in the 1850s (some 38 of them from one family and an additional 50 of them a year later). Some of those were people he personally enslaved and others may have been from groups he helped coordinate. Did these people welcome this opportunity or did they view it as a death sentence in a far away, unknown land? Bell evidently imagined they could use their knowledge of iron works to start some sort of iron manufactory in Liberia. And while there is evidence he may have liberated some of his slaves at various points, he certainly had plenty of people still enslaved to him when he died and he didn’t liberate any of them in his final will.
Why weren’t Jim or Joe sent to Liberia? Did they feel bitter or despairing because they had been left out? Or relieved to have dodged this exile? Bell’s 1855 Will included clauses entreating his heirs to not sell his enslaved laborers out of state and to keep family groups intact “if possible.”
These requests had no legal standing, of course. The self-styled munificent enslaver can be the most delusionally cruel.
There’s likely a lot more if I were to dig deeper in to Tennessee history but I need to take a deep breath and return to my other projects. I’m still thinking about Joe and Jim, though, and praying they found freedom.
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To Cite:
Ashton, Susanna. "The Most Astounding Runaway Advertisement I Have Ever Seen: part 2" Runaway Chronicles. Squarespace. 06/03/2024. https://susannaashton.squarespace.com/config/pages/65c93bd35c81e32bb1a08098/content
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