For the Price of His Wife: The Story of Jacob and Sall Glasgow

Access maps relating to slavery in Chester County here: arcg.is/L0D5f
Chester County did not escape the stain of slavery. Not only did hundreds of enslaved people work in the fields, taverns, forges, and mills throughout the county, but a growing enslaved population in the Caribbean opened new export markets for Chester County wheat and flour. In 1780 the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed the Gradual Abolition Act, but this early attempt to end slavery in Pennsylvania left a system in place that ensured it would continue well into the 19th century. Jacob Glasgow personally experienced the horrors of slavery firsthand-first as an enslaved man pursuing freedom, and second as a loving father and husband trying to navigate a legal system designed to protect the interest of the Hood family, who were the enslavers of his wife Sall. In 1803 Glasgow sued Samuel Hood over a broken contract. This was a bold act for a man who-just a few years earlier-had been inventoried as personal property. Glasgow’s perseverance and determination did not go unnoticed by the ensuing generations of children and grandchildren who shared his surname. This is a story of slavery in Chester County as told through the experience of Jacob Glasgow