by Jack Ford
As Kitty and the children disappeared down the drive, the singing began anew—a hand-clapping, foot-stomping rendition of a different hymn—as the hopeful voices soared, once again, toward the heavens.
Great day!
Great day, the righteous marching.
Great day!
God’s going to build up Zion’s walls.
Great day!
Chariot rode on the mountain top.
My God spoke and the chariot stop.
God’s going to build up Zion’s walls.
Great day!
This is the day of jubilee.
The Lord has set his people free!
Great day!
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I first discovered Kitty and her story on a blustery winter afternoon outside an old courthouse in Virginia. In February of 2014, my wife and I were staying at the Inn at Little Washington, located in a village often referred to as “the first Washington,” a village not much larger today than it was in 1749, when it was first surveyed by a young George Washington. Since I have spent so much of my professional life inside of courtrooms—first as a prosecutor and trial lawyer and later as a legal journalist—I often seek out interesting courthouses in my travels. And the village of Washington had just such a destination. I visited the 1830s-era courthouse in the center of town, an elegant redbrick, white-columned structure that still functions as the county court for Rappahannock County, and wandered through the building, spending most of my time in the small courtroom on the second floor.
After leaving the courthouse, I was strolling around the grounds when I encountered a plaque in front of the building. The caption on the plaque read KITTY PAYNE***FREEDOM LOST AND REGAINED. Curious, I read the text that described the scant contours of Kitty’s story, including the fact that she was born into slavery in 1816; that her biological father was her master; that her mistress decided to free her following the master’s death; that upon her emancipation, she and her children traveled with their mistress to Pennsylvania; that she was kidnapped by the master’s nephew, who claimed ownership of Kitty and her children, and was forcibly returned to Virginia; and that “after complex court proceedings, she regained her freedom” in this courthouse.
I was both puzzled and intrigued by the story. Puzzled because as a student of our justice system and a visiting professor at Yale University, New York University, and the University of Virginia, where I have taught a seminar about famous trials, I had never heard of Kitty’s case. And intrigued because the idea that a slave in the antebellum South of 1846—where slaves were deemed to be property and, as such, generally had no legal rights—had won her freedom in a Virginia courtroom seemed not only highly improbable but also nearly impossible.
This was the beginning of my quest to discover more about Kitty and her unlikely journey to freedom. The Rappahannock County Clerk’s Office, to my surprise and delight, provided me with access to the actual handwritten court records of the 1846 trial, including the witness list, the jury’s deliberation notes, and the judge’s final decision. From there, I was directed to the Rappahannock Historical Society, where I was able to review an array of local newspaper articles and general information concerning the trial and the participants. Eventually, thanks to a suggestion from the Rappahannock Historical Society staff, I made my way to the Chester County (PA) Historical Society, where I discovered a virtual treasure trove of research material. A Pennsylvania historian, Dr. Albert Cook Myers, had devoted nearly a decade in the 1940s to researching Kitty’s story, apparently with the intent of eventually writing a book. Although the book was never written, the boxes of material that he had gathered—including letters and personal recollections from the descendants of Kitty and other significant players in the saga, contemporary newspaper accounts, public records, and court documents—were donated to the Chester County Historical Society upon his death and provided extraordinary detail and depth for the story.
Yet, for all the biographical and chronological information that I was able to gather, the answers to certain compelling and fundamental questions remained elusive. Why would Kitty’s mistress choose to free her? What was their relationship? What dangers did they encounter on their Underground Railroad flight to the perceived safety of the North? Why would the mistress continue to fight for Kitty’s freedom after the kidnapping, placing her own social standing in deeper jeopardy? How did the mistress enlist the aid of the richest woman in the county, a slave-owning symbol of traditional Southern society, in their battle? Why would an established, pillar-of-the-community lawyer agree to represent a slave in her unprecedented legal challenge? And, most important, just who was this extraordinary woman named Kitty—a slave who had the courage to challenge the laws and traditions, both written and unwritten, of the time?
It was a storyteller’s challenge. Here are the essential facts; now tell us how and why this happened. In order to accomplish this and to stitch the elements of the story together, it became necessary to imagine the characters’ motivations and their conversations. But as I began to write the story, I found that they were not the thoughts and words of complete strangers. As with many relationships, at some point after immersing myself in the details of their lives, as scarce as they were, I came to feel that I somehow knew these characters. That I could sense what they might have been thinking and hear the words they might have spoken. At least, I hoped I did.
Although the resulting story is a work of fiction, the majority of the foundational facts are true. With just a few exceptions, all the characters described here actually existed, and their backgrounds, relationships, and roles in Kitty’s narrative are generally accurate. Despite the fact that there is no record of the precise words spoken at Kitty’s trial, the portrayal of the proceedings reflects the available court records and the manner in which a trial at that time would have been conducted. And although the judge’s actual decision was cloaked in arcane elements of Virginia law of that era, the essence of the startling ruling depicted in the story is accurate and, at times, utilizes the judge’s authentic language.
This novel ends with Kitty’s departure from Virginia following her surprising courtroom triumph and with her return journey to Pennsylvania, where she hoped to forge a new and better life in freedom. But that was not, of course, the end of Kitty’s actual story or the stories of those characters who populated her saga.
Mary Maddox remained close to Kitty and her children, and although the two women never saw each other again, they apparently corresponded occasionally. Several years after the death of her husband, Samuel, Mary married a Revolutionary War veteran named John Corder and lived on his farm in Rappahannock County until his death, at the age of ninety, in 1849. After that, she was lost to history, and there appears to be no record of where and when she died.
Fanny Withers continued to own and manage her plantation and real estate holdings. A few years after the trial, she married Washington A. Marlow, who died in 1856. They had no children. Fanny passed away in 1864.
Zephania Turner practiced law in Virginia for many decades following the trial. After the Civil War, he served for a number of years as the Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates and as a member of the Board of Visitors at Virginia Military Institute. He never married and died in 1876.
Judge Richard Field remained on the bench, serving with distinction for years as a Virginia court judge. During the period leading up to the Civil War, he published a letter urging Virginians not to secede and to remain loyal to the Union. In a tragic irony, both of his sons lost their lives fighting for the Confederacy.
Sam Maddox, after negotiations with Mary Maddox, did eventually take over the ownership and operation of his uncle Samuel’s farm. Although he and several other men, including Tom Finnegan, were indicted in Pennsylvania for the kidnapping of Kitty, he never retuned there to stand trial. Finnegan was the only member of the gang to be captured, tried, and convicted. He spent less than two years in prison for the crime. Maddox eventually married a
woman named Margaret Tobin, and they had several children. In 1885, due to unpaid debts, he lost his uncle’s farm in a foreclosure sale.
Sadly, the life Kitty found upon her return to Pennsylvania was not the kinder, gentler long life she sought and so richly deserved. After traveling by foot for nearly six months, aided once again by Quaker families and others along the Underground Railroad, she and her three children settled near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Kitty became a domestic worker, living in various homes with her youngest child, Arthur. Eliza Jane and Mary, despite being not yet ten years old, were sent to live and work in neighboring homes.
In 1847 Kitty—who had begun using the name Catharine—married a free black widower named Abraham Brian, who had four children from his previous marriage, and moved into his home in Gettysburg. According to recollections offered by her descendants, it was not a happy union. Brian apparently did not welcome Kitty’s children into his home, so they were forced to remain apart from their mother, working and residing with local families.
On August 15, 1848, Kitty gave birth to a daughter—her fifth child—and named her Frances, after Fanny Withers, one of the two women who had championed her fight for freedom. Two years later, in 1850, Kitty gave birth to another child, who, sadly, did not survive.
Of Kitty’s six children, four survived into adulthood. Eliza Jane worked and lived in Gettysburg for a number of years before moving to the Midwest. She survived the Battle of Gettysburg by hiding from Confederate soldiers—who were known to kidnap free blacks and send them back into slavery—in the home of her employer. Mary became a Quaker, married an African American man who had also escaped from slavery along the Underground Railroad, and eventually relocated to the Midwest, as well. Arthur enlisted in the 27th United States Colored Troops during the Civil War and fought at the Battle of the Crater, part of the siege of Petersburg in Virginia, in 1864. Little is known about the rest of Arthur’s life, including where and when he died. Frances was raised by her father, Abraham Brian, on his farm in Gettysburg. The Brian family fled from their farm during the Battle of Gettysburg, also fearful of being captured and sent back into slavery by the Confederate troops. The farmhouse was severely damaged during the fighting but was not destroyed, and it remains today as part of the Gettysburg National Military Park. Frances married a former slave who had escaped from the Confederate army during the battle, and they also ultimately settled in the Midwest.
On August 12, 1850 (there is some question as to the precise date), just four years after the courageous struggle that resulted in her emancipation, Kitty passed away. She had lived thirty-eight difficult years on this earth, thirty-four of them as a slave and four years as a free woman. Kitty is buried next to her husband in a small plot located at Gettysburg National Cemetery. Her final resting place is marked by a simple weathered granite headstone that reads:
CATHARINE
WIFE OF ABRAHAM BRIAN
DIED AUG. 12, 1850
AGED 38 YEARS
It is an unremarkable epitaph for a woman who lived a remarkable life.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am enormously grateful, as always, to my wife, Dorothy Ann, for her support and guidance throughout this project. She was with me when we first discovered Kitty’s story on the plaque in front of the Rappahannock County Courthouse in Virginia and was instantly as fascinated by this extraordinary woman’s tale as I was. She read every word of each draft of the book, contributed to the story lines and plot points, and helped to imagine the conversations and motivations of these elusive and often mysterious characters. My children, Ashley and Colin, and their respective spouses, Pat and Susie, were a constant source of encouragement and inspiration during the research and writing of the novel. Susie was especially helpful, reading each draft, offering cogent suggestions, and acting as a sounding board for the development of the characters, and I’m thankful to her for her significant contributions.
The journey from the accidental discovery of an unknown event in a remote courthouse to the finished novel was aided by a number of people. The Rappahannock (VA) Circuit Court Clerk, Peggy Ralph, was the first to introduce me to the details of Kitty’s adventure when she placed a file before me containing the yellowed, tattered handwritten court records of the 1846 case of Kitty v. Samuel Maddox. I am grateful to Peggy and her staff for their hospitality and assistance on each of my research visits. I am also thankful to Judy Tole and the staff of the Rappahannock Historical Society for providing me with access to their records and, particularly, for directing me to the Chester County (PA) Historical Society, where I discovered a wealth of detailed information. And I would also like to thank Peter Luke, a Virginia attorney and the unofficial historian of the Rappahannock County Courthouse, for taking the time to share his knowledge of the history and early details of this lovely historic building.
When I entered the Chester County Historical Society, the exceptionally helpful staff provided me with a vast collection of information and research, thanks to the years of painstaking and detailed investigation by the late Dr. Albert Cook Myers, a local historian who devoted a decade of his life in the 1940s to discovering all he could about Kitty’s life. Each time I returned, I was treated to additional boxes of notes, letters, and newspaper clippings, all of which helped bring me closer to an understanding of Kitty and the characters in her life. Although Dr. Myers never wrote the book that he had so devotedly researched, my sincere hope is that he would have enjoyed and appreciated this telling of Kitty’s tale.
I am also thankful to my dear friend Ellie Monahan, who was so very helpful in sorting through ideas and visualizing the story when it was in its infancy. And speaking of friends, Patrick O’Connell and his caring staff at the Inn at Little Washington took wonderful care of us during each of our research visits, not just nourishing and comforting us but also helping us to understand their little community of Washington today so that we might better understand the Washington and Rappahannock County of nearly two centuries ago.
Finally, I am forever indebted to my agent and friend, Paul Fe-dorko, for his guidance and constant support. And I also offer my heartfelt thanks to my editor, Selena James, for her instincts and suggestions, and for providing innumerable improvements, both large and small, to the novel. From the very first moment we talked, she understood and embraced Kitty and played an essential role in the telling of her remarkable odyssey.