Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)

Zenos Dawson (b. 1830 - d. ?)
MSA SC 5496-51280
Kidnapper, Queen Anne's County, Maryland

Biography:

    Over the years of 1851 and 1852, Zenos Dawson stood criminal trial in two separate kidnapping cases in Queen Anne's County Circuit Court. In the first, Dawson was indicted along with three other men for taking James Browne, a seven year-old free black, from his home and attempting to sell him as a slave in Baltimore City. Each defendant was tried separately and each was acquitted, Dawson for a "want of evidence." Browne was unable to testify as state law prevented blacks from testifying in the case of a white defendant.

    Most notable from the trial is the fact that during the process known as voir dire, or jury selection in a criminal case, 156 potential jurors were challenged and dismissed. 134 of those jurors were dismissed with cause. By comparison, in the very next court session charges were brought against James Bordley, a free black, for assault and intent to rape. In this voir dire process, only 77--not even half the amount in the Dawson case--potential jurors were challenged and dismissed.

    In his second trial of 1852, the State of Maryland indicted Dawson for "forcibly carrying away negroes Clinton and Sarah knowing them to be free." Court records reveal no last name for neither Clinton nor Sarah, but an 1850 Federal Census search shows Clinton Gibbs (aged 8) and Sarah Gibbs (aged 12) to be living in the household with their parents James and Harriet Gibbs. The jury acquitted Dawson for a second time under the same pretense as the first, a "want of evidence."

    In 1850 Dawson was just twenty years old but owned a property valued at $1,500. By the close of his two criminal court cases, Dawson had lost nearly all his money. In 1857, he petitioned the state under its insolvency laws and signed a deed of trust over to James E. Dillen in April of that same year. This agreement, fairly common in nineteenth century Maryland, left Dawson with just "necessary wearing apparel and bedding of himself and family."

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