The Parker Sisters: A Border Kidnapping

In this compact and engrossing story, Maddox (Removals), professor emerita of English and American studies at Georgetown University, uses the 1851 kidnappings of Elizabeth and Rachel Parker in Pennsylvania to demonstrate how antebellum slavery transcended state boundaries. After the passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, neither runaway slaves nor the free black population were guaranteed liberty in Northern states. Slave catchers—little more than kidnappers—roamed border states looking for vulnerable people they could claim as runaways and sell in the South. Maddox expertly contextualizes the Parker kidnappings, keeping her eye on the larger legal and political issues. As was common practice in Pennsylvania for children of African descent, the sisters were sent separately to live with and work for a white family. No one missed Elizabeth, who was regarded as a difficult child, because her employer cooperated in the kidnapping. After five months’ enslavement in New Orleans, the 11-year-old girl asserted her true identity, setting in motion her return home. Rachel was rescued sooner, but the release of both sisters depended on proof that they weren’t, in fact, runaway slaves. Maddox dramatically renders the subsequent legal trials in thrilling detail, yet never loses sight of the kidnappings’ historical importance in the deep divisions among Americans regarding slavery and abolition. Illus. (Feb.)