Charles Thompson or "Scrub" was an African American man residing in Orange County, North Carolina who was born enslaved in about 1759. In 1771 when Thompson was about twelve years old, he was sold by Robert Reid of Harrisburg to Richard Bennehan. Thompson worked for Bennehan for the remainder of his adolescence, mainly at Snow Hill Plantation in Orange County. It appears that Thompson had demonstrated resistance to his enslavement even as a teenager. In 1776 when rumors swirled amongst enslavers that some enslaved people had thoughts of running away or self emancipating, Bennehan advised his overseer to make Thompson sleep in the house so that he could be watched better. In 1784 when Thompson was about twenty-five, he ran away from Bennehan's plantation. In the runaway ad that Bennehan wrote, he stated that he believed Thompson might have headed for Virginia, but any specific ties Thompson had to that area are not known. It does not appear that Thompson ever returned to Bennehan's plantations in Orange County. As a free man, Thompson might have used a different name. No further records regarding this individual have been identified.