THE KIDNAPPING AND SELLING OF FREE NEGROES INTO SLAVERY.
Virginia, as early as 1753, enacted a law against importation of free
negroes for sale and stealing of slaves.[220] In 1788 another law
was passed against kidnapping. It recited that several evil-disposed
persons had seduced or stolen children or mulatto and black free
persons; and that there was no law adequate for such offenses. This
law made the penalty for such a crime very severe. Upon conviction the
offender was to suffer death without benefit of clergy.[221] North
Carolina had already (1779) enacted a law, with the same penalty,
against stealing slaves and kidnapping free negroes.[222]
The other Southern States which had laws against kidnapping are:
Alabama,[223] Maryland,[224] Mississippi,[225] Missouri,[226]
Florida,[227] South Carolina,[228] Arkansas,[229] Tennessee,[230]
Louisiana,[231] Georgia.[232] Delaware, however, had the most
interesting as well as very severe laws against kidnapping. That of
1793 required that any one guilty of kidnapping or of assisting to
kidnap free negroes or mulattoes should be whipped with thirty-nine
lashes on the bare back, and stand in the pillory with both of his
ears nailed to it, and when he came out to have their soft parts cut
off.[233] In 1826 the penalties were made even more severe: $1,000
fine, pillory one hour, to be whipped with sixty lashes upon the bare
back, to be imprisoned from three to seven years, at the expiration of
which he was to be disposed of as a servant for seven years, and upon
second conviction to suffer death.[234] In 1831 Congress passed a law
to prevent the abduction and sale of free negroes from the District of
Columbia.[235]
It is quite evident from these laws that kidnapping was a very common
crime. It does not appear, however, that they prevented it.
Even as early as 1817 it was estimated by Torrey, who seems to have
made a study of the subject, that several thousand legally free persons
were toiling in servitude, having been kidnapped.[236]
Free negro children were the ones who were most liable to be
kidnapped,[237] for the reason probably that they were easier managed
and less likely to have about them proofs of their freedom, though
sometimes, indeed, even white children, whether being mistaken for
negroes or not, were stolen and sold into slavery.[238]
More than twenty free colored children were kidnapped in Philadelphia
in 1825.[239] It is stated that some persons gained a livelihood by
stealing negroes from the towns of the North and carrying them to the
South for sale.[240] Statements similar to the following are often to
be met with in the papers published in slavery times:
"Four negro children, 18, 17, 9 and 5 years respectively--first two
girls; last two boys--were kidnapped and carried off from Gallatin
County, Illinois, on the evening of 5 ult. The father ... was tied
while the children were taken away. The kidnapping gang is regularly
organized and is increasing. The members are well known but cannot
be punished on account of the disqualification of negroes as
witnesses."[241]
"About midnight on the 27th of September a party of 8 or 10 Kentuckians
broke into the house of a Mr. Powell, in Cass County, Michigan, while
he was absent. They drew their pistols and bowie knives and dragged his
wife and three children from their beds, and bound them with cords and
hurried them off to their covered wagons and started post haste for
Kentucky."[242]
Probably kidnapping was carried on even more extensively in the slave
States themselves. "The Liberator," quoting from the "Denton (Md.)
Journal" in 1849 says:
"Three free negro youths, a girl and two boys, were kidnapped and taken
from the County with intent to sell them to the South.... They had been
hired for a few days by Mr. James T. Wooters, near Denton, for the
ostensible purpose of cutting cornstalks. After being a day or two in
Mr. Wooters' employ they suddenly disappeared.... Enquiry being set on
foot, it was, after some days, discovered that they had been secretly
carried through Hunting Creek towards Worcester County, thence to
Virginia. We learn that the Negroes are now in Norfolk."[243]
They were carried to Richmond where they were sold as slaves, but were
finally recovered.[244]
Notwithstanding the harshness of the Delaware laws against kidnapping
and the convictions[245] under them, the business of kidnapping seems
to have flourished there. A quotation or two will illustrate:
"Two young colored men, free born, were stolen from Wilmington a few
nights ago and taken, it is supposed, to some of the Southern slave
markets.... Fifty or sixty persons it is said, have been stolen from
the lower part of the State in the last six months."[246]
In 1840 the "Baltimore Sun" said: "A most villainous system of
kidnapping has been extensively carried on in the State of Delaware by
a gang of scoundrels residing there, aided and abetted by a number of
confederates living on the Eastern Shore of this State."[247]
While discussing kidnapping in Delaware, it is very unlikely we should
forget to mention probably the most notorious kidnapping gang which the
domestic slave trade produced. The principal character of the gang,
and the one from which it seems to have drawn its inspiration, and the
one from which it took its name--was a woman--in looks more like a man
than a woman--Patty Cannon by name--well known by tradition to every
Delawarian and Eastern Shore of Marylander. A son-in-law of hers was
hanged for the murder of a negro trader. His widow then married one
Joe Johnson who became a noted character in the business of kidnapping
through the aid and instruction of his mother-in-law, Patty Cannon.
Johnson was convicted once and suffered the punishment of the lash
and pillory. The grand jury in May, 1829, found three indictments for
murder against Patty Cannon,[248] but she died in jail May 11, of the
same year.[249]
White kidnappers sometimes used free colored men as tools by means of
which to ensnare other free colored men, and shared with them the
profits of the trade.[250] Indeed, the free colored men seem not to
have been much averse in aiding in the enslavement of their "brethren."
They sometimes even formed kidnapping bands of their own and pursued
the business without the aid of white men. Such a gang as this once
operated near Snow Hill, Maryland. It is said to have kidnapped and
sent off several hundred free negroes.[251]
Kidnappers devised various schemes for the accomplishment of their
purposes, some of them no less humorous than infamous. A man in
Philadelphia was found to be engaged in the occupation of courting and
marrying mulatto women and then selling them as slaves.[252] Another
plan was for one or two confederates to find out the bodily marks of a
suitable free colored person after which the other confederate would go
before a magistrate and lay claim to the ill-fated negro, describing
his marks, call in his accomplice as witness and so get possession of
the negroes.[253]
Probably the most ingenious of all methods of kidnapping was that
brought to light in Charleston, South Carolina, as related by Francis
Hall:
"The agents were a justice of the peace, a constable and a slave
dealer.... A victim having been selected, one of the firm applied to
the justice upon a shown charge of assault, or similar offense, for a
writ, which was immediately issued and served by the constable, and the
negro conveyed to prison.... The constable now appears, exaggerates the
dangers of his situation, explains how small is his chance of being
liberated even if innocent, by reason of the amount of jail fees and
other legal expenses; but he knows a worthy man who is interested in
his behalf, and will do what is necessary to procure his freedom upon
no harder condition than an agreement to serve him for a certain number
of years. It may be supposed the negro is persuaded.... The worthy
slave dealer now appears on the stage, the indenture of bondage is
ratified in the presence of the worthy magistrate and the constable,
who shares the price of blood, and the victim is hurried on shipboard
to be seen no more."[254]
From the nature of our information concerning kidnapping it is readily
seen that we have but little basis for a statistical estimate of the
number kidnapped. It must have ranged, however, from a few hundred to
two or three thousand annually. It appears quite certain that as many
were kidnapped as escaped from bondage, if not more.
The "Liberator" alone records nearly a hundred cases of detected
kidnapping between 1831 and 1860. But the number detected probably
bears but little relation to the number actually kidnapped. As was
before shown in the cases mentioned almost whole families were carried
off, and that in most cases, when a discovery was made, it was found
that the kidnapping gang had been in the business for years.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 220: Hening: Statutes at Large, Vol. VI., p. 357.]
[Footnote 221: Ibid., Vol. XII., p. 531.]
[Footnote 222: Laws of State of North Carolina. Revised Under Authority
of the General Assembly, Vol. I., p. 375.]
[Footnote 223: Acts of General Assembly of Alabama, 1840-41, p. 125.]
[Footnote 224: Maxcy: Revised Laws of Maryland, Vol. II., p. 356
(1811). Dorsey: General Public Statuary Law, Vol. I., p. 112.]
[Footnote 225: Hutchinson: Code of Mississippi (1798 to 1848), p. 960.
Revised Code of Mississippi, Authority of Legislature (1857), p. 603.]
[Footnote 226: Laws of State of Missouri Revised by Legislature (1825),
Vol. I., p. 289.]
[Footnote 227: Laws of Florida, 1850-51, p. 132-3.]
[Footnote 228: Laws of South Carolina, 1837, p. 58.]
[Footnote 229: English: Digest of Statutes of Arkansas (1848) Authority
of Leg. Chap. LI., p. 333.]
[Footnote 230: Hurd: Law of Freedom and Bondage, Vol. II., p. 92.]
[Footnote 231: Laws of a Public and General Nature of the District of
Louisiana, of Territory of Louisiana and Territory of Missouri and
State of Missouri to 1824 (passed Oct. 1, 1804).]
[Footnote 232: Hurd: Vol. II., p. 106.]
[Footnote 233: Laws of State of Delaware, Oct. 14, 1793. Hurd, Vol. IV.
p. 76.]
[Footnote 234: Passed Feb. 8, 1826. Laws of Delaware, Vol. VI., p. 715.]
[Footnote 235: Statutes at Large, Vol. V., p. 450.]
[Footnote 236: Jessie Torrey: A Portraiture of Domestic Slavery, p. 57.]
[Footnote 237: An address to the People of North Carolina, p. 38. (Y.)
Sl. Pamp., Vol. LXI.
Liberator: May 18, 1849. Niles' Reg., Feb. 25, 1826.]
[Footnote 238: Emancipator, March 8, 1848.]
[Footnote 239: Mrs. Childs: Anti-Slavery Catechism, p. 14. (Yale)
Slavery Pamp., Vol. LXII.]
[Footnote 240: Buckingham: The Eastern and Western States of America,
Vol. I., p. 11. Niles' Reg., Oct. 18, 1828. Liberator, Oct. 1, 1852,
Aug. 14, 1857. Alexander, Transatlantic Sketches, p. 230.]
[Footnote 241: Liberator, May 18, 1849.]
[Footnote 242: Ibid., Nov. 23, 1849. _Other cases_: Liberator, July 31,
1846; Sept. 5, 1845; Oct. 1. 1852; Dec. 3, 1841; Aug. 14, 1857; Aug.
15, 1856; April 25, 1835; Jan. 10, 1835; May 7, 1835; Nov. 6, 1846;
Niles' Reg., Sept. 27, 1817; Jan. 31, 1818; May 23, 1818; July 4, 1818;
Dec. 12, 1818; Feb. 25, 1826; June 28, 1828. W. Faux, Memorable Days in
America, p. 277. Several of these as given took place in slave States.]
[Footnote 243: Liberator, April 27, 1849.]
[Footnote 244: Ibid., June 8, 1849.]
[Footnote 245: North Carolina Standard, June 21, 1837.
Niles' Register, April 25, 1829.]
[Footnote 246: The Christian Citizen, Dec. 21, 1844. Quoting from Penn.
Freeman.]
[Footnote 247: Liberator, Feb. 21, 1840.]
[Footnote 248: Niles' Weekly Reg., April 25, 1829. Quoting from Del.
Gazette of April 17. American Annual Register, 1827-8-9, Vol. III., p.
123.]
[Footnote 249: Niles' Register, May 23, 1829.
Note on P. Cannon. George Alfred Townsend wrote a romance of about
700 pages, entitled "The Entailed Hat, or Patty Cannon's Times," in
which Patty Cannon is one of the principal characters. It is a very
interesting and instructive story. Townsend was a native of Delaware
and well qualified to write such a story. He says in the introduction:
"Often had she told him of old Patty Cannon and her kidnapping den
and her death in the jail of his native town. He found the legend of
that dreaded woman had strengthened instead of having faded with time,
and her haunts preserved, and eye witnesses of her deeds to be still
living. "Hence, this romance has much local truth in it and is not
only the narrative of an episode, but the story of a large region,
comprehending three State jurisdictions."
"'Patty Cannon's dead; they say she's took poison.'
"A mighty pain seized the Chancellor's heart, and the loud groans he
made called a stranger into the room.
"'Is that dreadful woman dead?' sighed the Chancellor.
"'Yes; she will never plague Delaware again. Marster.'
"'God be thanked!' the old man groaned."
"Entailed Hat," p. 541.]
[Footnote 250: Liberator: Sept. 14, 1849; Jan. 10, 1835.]
[Footnote 251: Niles' Register, April 10, 1824; Oct. 10, 1818.]
[Footnote 252: Jessie Torrey: A Portraiture of Domestic Slavery, p. 57.]
[Footnote 253: Ibid.]
[Footnote 254: Francis Hall: Travels in Canada and the United States,
p. 425.]