On this day, Calcutta Gazette published an advertisement about two “drummer boys” who were runaway slaves. The two boys bore the last name De Rozario and had run away from Fort St George in Madras (now Chennai) and it was likely that they had arrived in Calcutta.

Calcutta Gazette would often carry news of runaway slave boys and girls working for Europeans in 18th century British India. Many of them were of foreign origin. Malay and “Kafri”, meaning people of African origin, boys were often employed as slaves. Girls were employed as slaves, too, as the notices on runaways attest.

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