In the early nineteenth century United States, being legally free did not always mean being safe. For thousands of free Black Americans living in border regions, freedom existed under constant threat from kidnapping rings that supplied enslaved labor to the Deep South. Families could be settled, employed, and lawfully free, yet still vanish overnight. One of the most notorious figures to emerge from this violent system was Patty Cannon, a woman whose name became associated not only with kidnapping and human trafficking, but with serial murder.
In 1808, the United States banned the international slave trade. The result was not the decline of slavery, but the expansion of the domestic slave trade. As cotton cultivation expanded across the Deep South, demand for labor surged. With fewer legal sources of enslaved Africans, domestic slave trafficking became more profitable, and kidnapping free Black people became a lucrative crime.
This environment encouraged organized kidnapping rings, particularly in border regions where slavery and freedom coexisted uneasily. The Delmarva Peninsula, covering parts of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, was one such region. It had a large free Black population, poor coordination between local authorities, and easy access to rivers, ferries, and coastal routes that led south.
Patty Cannon and the gang she was associated with exploited all of these conditions.
Patty Cannon and the Cannon–Johnson Gang
Historical records identify Martha “Patty” Cannon as a slaveholder, tavern keeper, serial killer, kidnapper, and human trafficker operating primarily along the Maryland–Delaware border in the early 1800s. Through family and business ties, she was closely connected to Joseph Johnson, a central figure in what became known as the Cannon–Johnson kidnapping gang.
The gang specialized in abducting free Black people and selling them into slavery in southern states such as Mississippi and Alabama. Their victims included men, women, and children taken from communities in Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, including Philadelphia. State boundaries shielded the operation.
A person kidnapped in Delaware could be moved into Maryland and then sent south before authorities even realized a crime had occurred. Once removed from their home community, free Black victims had little ability to prove their legal status. Freedom papers were often destroyed or ignored, and buyers had little incentive to question a seller’s claims.
Cannon’s victims were not chosen at random. Children were especially vulnerable, as were young adults traveling alone or people seeking work along waterfronts and ferry crossings. Families could be separated quickly, reducing resistance and making identification harder. By the time relatives realized what had happened, victims were often already being transported south, beyond the reach of local authorities.
The gang relied as much on deception as force. Alongside white members, Cannon and Johnson used biracial accomplices to lure victims. One of the most important was John Purnell, sometimes listed in records using the term “mulatto” and known to operate under aliases such as “John Smith.”
His appearance allowed him to approach free Black people without immediately raising suspicion. Victims were persuaded to board boats, enter wagons, or accept temporary work, only to be seized once isolated. This tactic was especially effective in places like Philadelphia, where kidnappers needed to blend in rather than rely on open violence.
Cannon’s cruelty extended beyond her victims to the people she controlled. Among the most disturbing aspects of her operation was her treatment of Cyrus James, a biracial child she purchased as a slave when he was about seven years old. James was raised in Cannon’s household, isolated from protection, and groomed to serve her interests.
As he grew older, Cannon forced him to help with kidnappings. She used him to approach free Black people first and make the situations look normal, so victims did not realize they were being taken until it was too late.
Cyrus James later became one of the most important witnesses against her.
Kidnapping alone did not sustain Cannon’s operation. Murder did.
Victims who resisted confinement, fell sick, attempted escape, or threatened to expose the gang became liabilities. According to later testimony, captives were chained, beaten, and hidden in Cannon’s house before being transported. Those who could not be controlled were killed.
Efforts to Stop the Gang
Not everyone ignored the crimes. Mayor Joseph Watson of Philadelphia, a Quaker, worked closely with Governor John Andrew Shulze of Pennsylvania to recover kidnapped free Black youths and prosecute the gang. In 1826, Watson offered a substantial reward for information and paid for affidavits and witnesses, including in the high profile case of Cornelius Sinclair, a free Black teenager kidnapped and sold into slavery in Alabama.
Despite these efforts, white members of the gang largely escaped justice. Biracial gang member John Purnell, also known as John Smith, was acquitted in Mayor’s Court but later convicted in Philadelphia County Court on two counts of kidnapping. He was sentenced to 42 years in prison and a heavy fine, dying in jail five years later.
Real enforcement only came when bodies were found.
In April 1829, the violence that had long been suspected was finally exposed. A tenant plowing a waterlogged field on property owned by Patty Cannon in Sussex County, Delaware, uncovered a grave containing a wooden chest filled with human bones. Further investigation revealed the bodies of four Black victims, including three children, buried on her land.
The discovery confirmed what Black communities had feared for years: missing people were not simply being sold. Some were being murdered.
A Delaware grand jury indicted Cannon on four counts of murder, covering killings between 1820 and 1824. The charges included an adult man, a “Negro boy,” a male child, and an infant girl. Witnesses testified that Cannon had removed an injured Black child who never returned. One key witness, Cyrus James, had been purchased by Cannon as a child, raised in her household, and later described her role in the killings.
Faced with physical evidence and testimony, Cannon was jailed in Sussex County.
The Delaware Public Archives later noted that authorities only took decisive action after evidence of murder was uncovered. Years of kidnapping had not produced a full response. The presence of bodies changed that.
While awaiting trial, Patty Cannon confessed to nearly two dozen murders of Black kidnapping victims. She died in her cell in Georgetown, Delaware, on May 11, 1829, at an estimated age of seventy, before trial could proceed. Some accounts suggest she poisoned herself. Others cite natural causes. What is certain is that she never faced execution or formal sentencing for her crimes.
Her body was buried in a jail graveyard and later moved to a potter’s field. Her skull was separated from the rest of her remains and displayed publicly for decades, including at the Dover Public Library, before being loaned to the Smithsonian in the twentieth century.
In the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries, Delaware placed historical markers honoring the victims and those who fought to stop the gang.
Sources:
https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc5400/sc5496/051200/051231/html/051231bio.html
https://www.andrewsharp.net/delaware-independent/2022/01/05/why-is-a-local-development-named-for-patty-cannon
