A slave boy, soon to
become free by law, disappeared from his possession, and he gave it out
that the boy had run away. But suddenly our neighbor began to drink and
to display money, and they say he had the boy kidnapped. He died like
one with an attack of despair."
As they turned again northward, in the genial afternoon, Judge Custis
said:
"What a stigma on both sides, Chancellor, is this kidnapping!"
The old man meekly looked down and did not reply. Judge Custis, feeling
that there was some sensitiveness on this and kindred subjects, yet why
he could not recollect, continued, under the impulse of his feelings:
"The night before I left Princess Anne, Joe Johnson, one of your worst
kidnappers, boldly came to my house for lodging. Why I let him stay
there is a subject of wonder and contempt to myself. But there he was,
perhaps when I came away."
"Not a prudent thing to permit," the old man groaned.
"I knew his wife was the widow of a gallows' bird, one Brereton--the
name is Yankee. He was hanged for highway robbery."
A muffled sound escaped the sober old gentleman of Delaware.
"_You_ should remember the murder, Chancellor. It happened in this
state. This Brereton killed a slave-buyer for what he brought here upon
his person to buy the kidnapped free people and apprentice-slaves.
Brereton was the son-in-law of Patty Cannon, that infamous pander
between Delaware and the South.
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