Adams County Pa. Related Historical Articles
The kidnapping of
ex-slave Kitty Payne
Debra McCauslin
Catherine “Kitty” Payne
and her three children
were living freely in
Adams County’s Menallen
Township starting in May
1843. She, a widow, had
been a slave in
Virginia, but she and
her children were given
their freedom and
escorted to Pennsylvania
by her owner, Mrs. Mary
Maddox. Mrs. Maddox
lived in Adams County
with Payne and her
children for about ten
months before she
returned to Virginia.
In July 1845, in the
middle of the night,
Thomas Finnegan and four
assailants broke into
Payne’s home, gagged her
and her children, put
them in a wagon and took
them back to Virginia to
serve Finnegan’s client
as slaves. Apparently,
someone in the Menallen
neighborhood witnessed
or learned of the event
and reported the
incident to local
authorities.
In 1846, the kidnappers
were arrested and tried
in the Adams County
Courts. They were found
guilty of “forcibly and
unlawfully taking Payne
and her children back to
Virginia with the
intention of keeping
them as slaves” and
sentenced to five years
of solitary confinement.
Adams County Court of
Quarter Sessions records
and Gettysburg
newspapers revealed some
of the details of the
incident. Mrs. Maddox, a
resident of Rappahannock
County, Virginia,
situated among the
rolling foothills of the
South Mountain southeast
of Front Royal, gave
Payne and her children
their freedom after
Maddox’s husband died.
According to Mr.
Maddox’s will, all of
his property was granted
to his wife upon his
death. Mr. Maddox also
stipulated that upon
Mrs. Maddox’s death, all
of her property would go
to a nephew, Samuel
Maddox, Jr. Apparently,
after Mrs. Maddox died,
Samuel Maddox felt that
his Aunt Mary should not
have manumitted Kitty
and her children, so he
hired Finnegan and his
henchmen to perform the
task of returning what
he considered to be “his
property.”
The Court of Quarter
Sessions documents also
revealed the names of
the individuals who
testified against the
kidnappers. Six of them
were members of the
Society of Friends
(better known as
Quakers) belonging to
the Menallen Meeting.
Other witnesses for the
prosecution were Amon
and Rachel Jones, and
Jane Roberts. These
three individuals,
according to the Adams
County census, were
blacks living in
Menallen Township.
These court records of
the 1840s also provide
evidence of the
collaboration between
local Quakers and some
of the blacks in the
area. Together, they
assisted others in
obtaining a life of
freedom, removing them
from the horrors of
slavery, some of them
moving along the
“Underground Railroad.”
Furthermore, the court
records document that
those collaborations
were occurring in Adams
County long before the
issue of slavery ignited
a Civil War which
practically brought the
issue to their doorsteps
in 1863.
Tragically, we do not
know if Mrs. Payne and
her children ever
enjoyed a free life
after the trial.
Read other articles by Debra McCauslin
Do you know of an individual who helped shape the Adams County?
If so, send their story to us at: History@myGettysburg.net
