Penny Howcott, a forty-year-old enslaved woman, had escaped from her enslaver, Charles W. Mixon, who then offered as much information as he could about her to expedite her return to him. NC law provided that a runaway who remained away for two months or more could be “outlawed” and killed without penalty, which this enslaver was taking full advantage of. Note also the dense web of family connections that Mixon knew about and that Penny may have used to obtain her freedom. I suspect her family members were scattered about due to the recent death of Josiah Cofield.