Talk:Patty Cannon

message: Ed Okonowitz, a local Delaware author and storyteller, tells the story of Patty Cannon with much more detail.  He described in detail more of the rumors of her cruelty.  For example, she once threw a baby into the fireplace because its mother could not calm it down.  There are also more rumors about her suicide in Georgetown - Okonowitz says that she may have hidden cyanide in the hem of her dress, in a cake delivered by her children, or she may have bribed a guard to sneak it to her.  Mrhodes8 17:47, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks for contributing the details, MrRhodes8. I took them out of the article for the moment because they are so sensational, and not sourced to a written account.  I'll look around and see if I can find a written ref so that they can go back in. -- LisaSmall T/C 23:15, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  More rumors about Patty Cannon 

message: does anyone know patty cannons birthday? my daughter is doing a school project on this and its one of the questions. thank you —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.250.104.139 (talk) 23:40, 10 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: No, but I'm looking.  Unless a rough age can be procured from U.S. Census data, I don't expect to find anything.  Her major biographer, Townsend, put a note at the end of his book about the two competing (and totally incompatible) stories of her origins. -- LisaSmall T/C 02:53, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  anyone know her birthdate 

message: Three short paragraphs from TEH are now included in the article.  Although this is a longer quote that I'd usually include, I put it in for two reasons.  
;*One, it provides a comprehensive context for the origin of Cannon's gang — unemployed transient whites looking for cash after the war; the high price of black slaves in the South; the anger of local whites towards local blacks perceived as having supported the British.  
;*Two, the tone of this selection conveys Cannon's times more thoroughly than any modern paraphrase could.
;*Three, I think the material is needed to explain how she got away with it for so long.  The only thing missing from the TEH explanation is that the kidnapped free blacks left property behind, providing their neighbors with a hefty financial motive for seeing them gone (in addition to their anger about presumed black loyalty to the British in the war), but I can't put that in the article without a citation without violating WP:OR or WP:VERIFY.
The TEH, sensationalized as it may be, is the major source of info on Cannon and her times.  While I hesitate to include any of its specifics about her origins, acts, or final end without alerting the reader in the text, rather than a footnote, that the info is from TEH, the book can be relied on for general facts such as the effect of the 1812 War on the slave-stealing business. Sources on Patty Cannon are going to be rare and hard to find; I think the article has room for this one, so long as the material used carefully, with proper caveats and introductions.  -- LisaSmall T/C 02:53, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: There has been late 20th-21st century academic work on kidnappings of free blacks and especially some of the activities of the Cannon-Johnson gang. One source about the lengthy case of Cornelius Sinclair I've added to this article. It relies on contemporary primary sources, such as African Observer and court cases. It's inappropriate to rely on a novel for the historical context and have shortened the quote from TEH. There are likely sources, such as Carol Wilson's history of kidnappings, or histories of the area in the War of 1812 that can provide more factual accounts. Parkwells (talk) 19:05, 17 April 2015 (UTC)
thread_title: ''The Entailed Hat'' box quote

message: I've deleted Shields as a source, as this book appears to be self published. (It is the only one for that presss, which is not established.) Put it in "Further reading".Parkwells (talk) 19:53, 17 April 2015 (UTC)
thread_title: Self-published not RS