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Cover image of Stealing Freedom Along the Mason-Dixon Line
Cover image of Stealing Freedom Along the Mason-Dixon Line
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Stealing Freedom Along the Mason-Dixon Line

Thomas McCreary, the Notorious Slave Catcher from Maryland

Milt Diggins

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Slavery, freedom, and kidnapping in the mid-Atlantic.

This is the story of Thomas McCreary, a slave catcher from Cecil County, Maryland. Reviled by some, proclaimed a hero by others, he first drew public attention in the late 1840s for a career that peaked a few years after passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Living and working as he did at the midpoint between Philadelphia, an important center for assisting fugitive slaves, and Baltimore, a major port in the slave trade, his story illustrates in raw detail the tensions that arose along the border between slavery and freedom just prior...

Slavery, freedom, and kidnapping in the mid-Atlantic.

This is the story of Thomas McCreary, a slave catcher from Cecil County, Maryland. Reviled by some, proclaimed a hero by others, he first drew public attention in the late 1840s for a career that peaked a few years after passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Living and working as he did at the midpoint between Philadelphia, an important center for assisting fugitive slaves, and Baltimore, a major port in the slave trade, his story illustrates in raw detail the tensions that arose along the border between slavery and freedom just prior to the Civil War. McCreary and his community provide a framework to examine slave catching and kidnapping in the Baltimore-Wilmington-Philadelphia region and how those activities contributed to the nation’s political and visceral divide.

Reviews

Reviews

There is no other Underground Railroad book quite like this excellent study from Milt Diggins. Stealing Freedom offers the most sophisticated portrait yet crafted about a notorious slave catcher and about the tragic realities of antebellum kidnapping along the Mason-Dixon Line.

Milt Diggins presents the Mason-Dixon Line as a perpetually shifting boundary between slavery and freedom, a border region in which free people of color as well as fugitive slaves lived in constant danger, and kidnappers operated with the government’s blessing.

A thorough and thoughtful study those researching the Underground Railroad or the growing conflict between North and South over slavery should have on their bookshelves. We need more books like this.

About

Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
254
ISBN
9780996594448
Table of Contents

Preface & Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Maelstrom
2. A Failed Compromise
3. "Hanging the First Abolitionist that They Catch in Maryland"
4. The Trials of Rachel Parker
5. Kidnapping... or Slave

Preface & Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Maelstrom
2. A Failed Compromise
3. "Hanging the First Abolitionist that They Catch in Maryland"
4. The Trials of Rachel Parker
5. Kidnapping... or Slave Catching?
6. End of an Era
Afterword
References
Index

Author Bio
Featured Contributor

Milt Diggins

Milt Diggins, an independent scholar, is a former editor of the Cecil Historical Journal and a frequent contributor to local publications.