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The Parker
Sisters: A Border Kidnapping
by Lucy Maddox
c.2016, Temple University Press $28.50 / higher in
Canada 256 pages
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Truth Contributor
Your neighbors said they’d keep an eye on your house for you
this summer.
They’d get the mail in, and grab the newspaper while you
were on vacation. They’d do everything for you – and, as in
the new book The Parker Sisters by Lucy Maddox,
you should be glad if they watch your children, too.
Along the border between Pennsylvania and Maryland, Thomas
McCreary “earned a reputation” as slave catcher, did jail
time in 1849 for kidnapping, and was mistrusted by many,
black and white. Still, he’d managed to find work as a mail
carrier in both states, which may’ve given him opportunity
to observe the comings-and-goings of Elizabeth and Rachel
Parker, two free black children.
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Elizabeth, somewhere around 10 years old, was a headstrong,
“difficult” child who’d left (or been kicked out of) her
family’s home years before and had worked and lived with a
series of white families. The latest was near-destitute;
Maddox hypothesizes that Elizabeth’s presence in the
Donnelly household may have been on purpose, so that
McCreary might have an easier chance to snatch her.
Two weeks later, Elizabeth’s older sister, Rachel, was taken
in broad daylight, right in front of the family who employed
her. Rachel’s abduction, says Maddox, probably made
neighbors notice that Elizabeth, who was already on her way
to a slave auction in Baltimore, was gone.
The man who employed Rachel, Joseph Miller, was outraged
over her kidnapping. There had been similar trouble before
nearby; the federal government and individual states had
long argued over the laws governing escaped slaves, free
blacks, and slave catchers who generally lied about both.
Miller and his neighbors sprang into action and, says
Maddox, “Within twenty-four hours, the abductions of the
Parker sisters would no longer be local matters.”
Neither would they be resolved happily or quickly. Says
author Lucy Maddox, Rachel and Elizabeth spent months in
jail, while their legal status and identities were resolved.
In the meantime, one man lost his life and another got off
“scot-free.”
I’m normally not a fan of books that offers dozens of names
to keep track of, but that profuseness somehow works in
The Parker Sisters.
That may be because Maddox explains in detail the
significance of what happened by telling the history behind
the laws that made this event possible (and illegal).
Readers will appreciate the story’s movement between North
and South, and the clarity of explanation, even on the
smallest of details. There are some big surprises in here,
too – particularly in what happened to Elizabeth Parker.
On the matter of murder, Maddox is rather like a detective,
which is another well-done aspect of this book. Officials
tried to explain the death as a suicide, but she walks
readers through events and clues to prove otherwise.
Despite all that’s appealing, and because it’s packed with a
lot, this isn’t an easy book to read – but it’s worth it. If
you’re a lover of a good tale or a historian, particularly,
The Parker Sisters is a book you’ll want to keep your
eyes on. |
