Thomas Moffit (b. 1795 -
d. ?)
MSA SC 5496-51272
Kidnapper, Queen Anne's County, Maryland, 1850
Biography:
Thomas Moffit was indicted for multiple kidnappings along the Eastern Shore of Maryland. He was charged in 1851 with kidnapping Rebecca Johnson, a free black woman from Kent County. He and accomplice James W. Price took Rebecca across the Chesapeake Bay to Baltimore City with the intent to sell her into slavery. The two, listed as part of the same household in the 1850 Federal Census, were caught making the illegal transaction at a slave jail on the corner of Howard and Pratt Streets. The jail was maintained by Bernard M. Campbell, who shipped 1,279 slaves into the Deep South from this jail over the course of just twelve years. Moffit was eventually acquitted for a "want of evidence." Though Johnson was the victim, she was unable to testify due to a Maryland law dating back to colonial times that forbade blacks or mulatto’s bore by a white woman from testifying in the case of a white defendant.
Moffit also faced trial in 1852 for the kidnapping of James Browne, a free black boy from Queen Anne’s County. His intent was to sell Brown as a slave for life. As were co-conspirators William Cahall and Zenos Dawson, the State of Maryland ultimately acquitted Moffit for a “want of evidence.” Brown, like Johnson, was not allowed to testify in his own victimhood. These are the only two cases brought against Moffit, though the Kent News alleges that Moffit and Price were frequent kidnappers of free blacks.
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