James W. Price (b. circa
1810 - d. ?)
Enslaved Kidnapper, Queen Anne's County, Maryland, 1850
MSA SC 5496-51278
Biography:
In 1851 the State of Maryland charged James Worrell Price with kidnapping for his attempt to sell Rebecca Johnson, a free black woman of Kent County, into slavery. Price brought Johnson to Baltimore City with the assistance of Thomas Moffit, who is listed as a resident on Price's property in the 1850 Federal Census. Moffit sold Johnson for $425 to Bernard M. Campbell at his slave jail at the intersection of Howard and Pratt Streets. Campbell shipped 1,279 slaves into the Deep South from this jail over the course of just eight years. Authorities uncovered the plot and charged Price and Moffit with kidnapping. Price was acquitted due to a “want of evidence,” even as Johnson could not testify due to state law which prohibited blacks (slave or free) from testifying in the case of a white defendant.
Price was indicted in 1852 for his role in a kidnapping in Queen Anne’s County. He faced the charge of “forcibly carrying off free negroes” Clinton and Sarah with the intent to sell them as slaves for life. He again was acquitted for a want of evidence, despite the defense calling just one witness in Price's support. His co-conspirator in that case was Zenos Dawson, who was also charged in a separate case with Thomas Moffit for kidnapping James Browne. Price, Moffit, and Dawson were only formally charged with two kidnapping cases but the Kent News alleges the men were frequent kidnappers.
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