Run-Away Ad placed in the Edenton (NC) Gazette newspaper on September 24, 1807 says:

"40 Dollars Reward.
Runa-away from the Plantation of subscriber near this Town, on the 29th of August, a Negro Man named ISAAC.
He is about 45 years of age, 5 feet 9 or 10 inches high, very much knock-kneed, the joints of his great toes are unusually large, and he has lost two of his upper fore teeth. He is a cooper by trade, and was lately the property of Mr. James Granberry, dec. of this place.

He has lived with the late Mr. Josiah Granberry, at Sunsberry, in Gates country, at Winton, in Northampton country, with Mr. Josiah Granberry, at the Cross-Roads, in Bertie country, with the late Mr. John D. White, at the White Marsh, and as Suffolk in Virginia; it is supposed he is well known at all those places. It is uncertain what clothes he took away with him.

All persons are forewarned not to carry away, or harbor the said fellow; And whoever will deliver him to me at this place shall be intitled to the above reward, and all reasonable charges.
Josiah Collins,
Edenton, ___. Aug19, 1807. ____ "
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Source for ad and narrative below: Somerset Place State Historic Site

"Many enslaved persons escaped their enslavers to retake control of their lives and obtain freedom.
A freedom-seeker named Isaac escaped from one of Josiah Collins I’s Edenton plantations on August 29, 1807. Josiah offered a reward for Isaac’s capture in the Edenton Gazette on September 24.

As newspapers grew in popularity, they became a mechanism to enforce the institution of slavery.
Enslavers used so-called “runaway ads,” like the one pictured, as a tool to control the movement of enslaved persons and to attempt to keep them in bondage.
Although we do not know Isaac’s fate, his bravery and determination to resist this very powerful and oppressive institution are evident. "