The Parker Sisters

November 23, 2015
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.

Starred review from December 1, 2015

Maddox (emeritus, English, American studies, Georgetown Univ.; Citizen Indians) relates a gripping narrative of two free African American girls in mid-19th-century Pennsylvania. Living within miles of the Maryland (a slave state) border, Elizabeth and Rachel Parker were stolen from local farms and subsequently employed by slave catchers, who were constantly on the lookout for fugitive slaves--even in free states--and who frequently kidnapped free blacks and transported them to slave markets to be sold to the highest bidder. The history of the Fugitive Slave Act, as well as the history of the border wars between Pennsylvania and Maryland, is extremely well told by Maddox. She weaves the story of the citizens of the local Pennsylvania community where the girls were raised and valued into the larger one of the issue of slave states vs. free states. The use of primary sources such as diaries and newspapers enriches the account of the Parker girls, their kidnappings and entry into slavery via Baltimore and then New Orleans, as well as the resulting trials. VERDICT This book should be read by all who have an interest in freedom and civil rights. There is much to learn about the history of slavery that is still being discovered by historians such as Maddox.--Amy Lewontin, Northeastern Univ. Lib., Boston

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