Delaware’s Sick and Twisted Story of Patty Cannon
Delaware’s sick and twisted story of Patty Cannon, a kidnapper of enslaved people in Delaware, is a grueling and vile piece of history many do not know about in the first state. It all started in the early 1800s…
Illegal slave trade, what became known as the Reverse Underground Railroad in America, was on the rise especially along the east coast.
Patty Cannon was one of the most notoriously known kidnappers and murders of Delaware. She targeted enslaved people, alongside her son in law and his brother. She was raised in the town of Sussex, Delaware, but operated her kidnappings and illegal activity out of a tavern in Johnson’s Cross Roads, Maryland, according to Maryland.gov. Some rumors say that Cannon was originally from Canada and moved to Delaware when she was 16 years old. She, herself, was known notoriously throughout the Eastern Shore of Maryland as a kidnapper and murderer of slaves.
Cannon chose to “work” out of the tavern because it was situated right alongside three different counties, Sussex in Delaware, and Caroline and Dorchester in Maryland. This became an easy fallout shelter for her illegal and disgusting acts of kidnapping and murder. She, along with her other cronies, would capture slaves and even freed African Americans in Maryland, Delaware, Philadelphia, and New Jersey. Once she kidnapped them, she would sell them as property in the slave trade to the south.
Who Was Cyrus James to Patty Cannon?
Patty was a slave owner of one woman and one boy. She forced the boy to capture fugitive slaves for her. It was the boy who ultimately brought Patty Cannon to justice. His name was Cyrus James.
Cyrus James was born and raised in Maryland and was brought before a justice of the peace in Delaware, where he safely spilled the news of Patty Cannon’s horrible acts of violence. He told the police and state officials that Cannon was kidnapping and murdering with her son in law and his brother. He even described how Patty killed a baby.
After hearing the awful stories Cyrus James told state officials, they accompanied him to Patty’s house and dug up where multiple bodies were buried on her property. Rumors have it that Patty and her gang of illegal slave traders kidnapped over 3,000 people, and murdered over 30. Patty was arrested for 4 accounts of murder.
Patty Cannon Gets Arrested
Patty Cannon was arrested in April of 1829, immediately upon digging up human remains on her farm. The son in law is said to have escaped and relocated to Alabama. Cannon was placed in jail in Georgetown, Delaware along with Cyrus James for kidnapping and murder charges. Another man by the name of Butler was also a part of their kidnapping scheme. She was around 60-70 years old. Cannon died May 11, 1829 in the Delaware jail cell she was being held in. She died of poisoning, suicide.
Backtrack a little in time – Patty Cannon was initially married to Jesse Cannon, a local farmer in Georgetown, Delaware. Jesse had died somewhat mysteriously and unexpectedly. People believe that Patty poisoned him just like she did to herself years later.
The weirdest part of the whole Patty Cannon story…
When Patty Cannon died, she was buried outside. Years later, her remains were exposed while the land was under renovations. A Delaware police officer took her skull as a “souvenir”.
You were once able to visit Patty Cannon’s skull at the Dover Public Library in 1961. And where is it today? The skull of Patty Cannon can be found in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. on a long term loan.
The skull is not put on display to commemorate Patty Cannon, but rather the innocent people and children that were abused, tortured, killed and involved in the illegal slave trade in America.
A local story similar to the one you’ve just read is The Truth About Devil’s Road, which involves Delaware and Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.
43 Reasons for Admission into a Lobotomy Mental Asylum in 1800s
According to the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum of 1864 to 1889, these 43 reasons and a few more would hospitalize you. Mental institutions in past history were known for inhumane treatment, experimentation on patients, and malpractice by doctors. The list displayed are all examples of why someone could either be admitted to a mental health institution in that time, or why they could admit themselves. For instance, some “old folks who had no one to take care of them could simply walk into the hospital, sign some papers and stay there until they died” according to grafwv.
Many patients in history passed away due to malpractice or negligence, including teenagers, children, and infants. Many times, families that would admit their children would often to just tell others that their children passed away. Once you were in a mental asylum, unfortunately there was a very rare chance you ever left.
Psychiatry has obviously evolved, but very scary to think that we were once using this list as evidence for mental illnesses in our past.
History of Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum
The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum was originally built in West Virginia, and was designed to house 250 patients. Looking back on U.S. history, this “insane asylum” became infamous for being so poorly run, as well as their lobotomies. The mental institution was always so overcrowded. In fact, “the hospital held 717 patients by 1880, 1,661 patients in 1938, over 1,800 in 1949, and at its peak, 2,600 in the 1950s in such overcrowded conditions” according to Wikipedia.
Unfortunately, due to the poor conditions, many patients died while under care at Trans-Allegheny. The number is estimated somewhere between 400 and 500. Trans-Allegheny later became known as Weston State Hospital, and was home for the West Virginia Lobotomy Project in the early 1950s. The reason why they started lobotomies, was to reduce the number of patients and to control severe overcrowding… There has also been evidence of patients being locked in cages if their attitude or temper could not be controlled.
Nowadays, community activists in West Virginia are actively trying to repurpose and revitalize the building for something much better than the asylum’s history.
Diagram of Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum which later became known as Weston State Hospital. (Photo Credit: Flickr/Mike Tewkesbury)
