The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1884-06-07
BITS OF LOCAL HISTORY.

\ few years ago. while on visit to
the capital Of the State of Delaware, |
was taken out to farm called "The
Wildcat owned by the Hum family
There | beheld one of the most ardent
men Pennsylvania produced to help fugi,
tive slaves, and his father before him ran
Il vessel out of Jones Creek, the captain
Of which was black man, and he was
ordered to stop near the mouth of the
creek on every voyage to Philadelphia
for the purpose of letting escaped slaves
get on board. A millpond at that spot
shows the veritable Lotus flower of
Egypt growing on the surface OF the
water, and it is said to be the only place
in America where the Lotus is Indigenous
or naturalized. A few miles from the
same place, at the village of Camden,
lives a colored woman, Brinkley, and
her aged son, who were both systematic
| assisters of fugitive slaves. and probably
have spirited away hundreds of them.
Mr.. Hum, already mentioned, had
| terrific fight at Chester, Penn. with one
Of the Mayo family from West River,
| Nd, who had captured a slave from his
kitchen. This Quaker man fought with
the STAKEHOLDER almost with the fury of
a maniac. Another member of the same
| family was indicted at New Castle for
assisting fugitive slaves in connection
with Thos. Garrett; Chief Justice fancy
was on the bench. and the father of the
present Thomas Francis Bayard prose-
cuted the abolitionists. Both of them
were fined to the amount that completely
stripped them of all their property, but
nevertheless Mr.. Garrett accumulated
another respectable competence before be
died, ard Mr. HUM went to South Caro-
lima during the war and began to educate
the freedmen there.
Near Seaford. Delaware, on the Mary
land boundary line, still stands in all its
integrity the famous Kidnappers' Tavern
of Patty Cannon and her son. in-law,
| young johnson. two of the most remark
able characters who ever figured in the
contraband slave trade. Patty Cannon
originally lived in Il farm house a few
rods from the same spot, her FIRST SON in
law WIS hanged for numbering slave
trader who came to the house with a
large amount OF money to buy the free
negroes of Delaware. The widow OF the
| ,,.,t {l,n,, I'll,
prosecuted by John NJ Clayton on behalf
of the Quaker Protection Societies of the
North, and whipped at the post. lie
built this large hotel, the high pitched
roof of which contains no Dormer win
dows and was used as prison pen,
which is still to be seem
Delaware, at the period above named,
contained several thousand free negroes,
and the price of that kind of property
being high, it was a regular business to
steal these people, assault them with
clubs, gag and tie them, and sell them
to Geogia traders. Patty Cannon was
finally arrested for murder, the bones OF
different individuals being found in the
fields around her old dwelling, and the
remains Of one man ueiug identified as
IL missing slave trader who was shot by
Patty and her gang as he was going to
Laureltown. She died from poison, it is
believed while in Jail at Georgetown, and
her skull and that of her sister, Betty
Cannon, and her foster father, Ebenezel
johnson, are now to be seen at Fowler
& Wells on Broadway. They were OBJ
tanned by the Phrenologist while lectur.
ing in that region thirty or forty years
ago.
Patty Cannon is said to have been the
daughter of an English gypsy aud the
discarded son of nobleman. | ob
served at the recent sale of H. G. Muir
phys library a book published man!
years ago which contains an accurate
, description of Patty Cannon's den ant
her methods of kidnapping. The Har
per's are about to publish a novel which
restores that singular period in Ameri
can and social history. e. 4. I0nHsend
" Y TribuHP