Daniel Cannon (b. 1795 - d. 1861)
MSA SC 5496-051291
Property Owner, Dorchester County, Maryland
Biography:
Daniel Cannon was a small farmer, who owned from one to three slaves throughout his adult life. However, it was his role in the experience of one Dorchester County slave, Mintie Patterson, that was Cannon's most notable. The woman had been the property of a nearby farmer named Peter Stack, who decided to sell her to a southern slave trader, likely sometime in the late 1840's or early 1850's.1 Patterson's obituary in the Denton Journal purports that, with the help of her master's wife, she was able to abscond before the sale was complete. Allegedly, Mintie managed to elude capture long enough that Stack was compelled to refund the trader's money. At that point, Daniel Cannon proceeded to negotiate "her purchase 'as she ran,' that is he took his chances of finding her."2 While this purchase was not acknowledged in any of the official county records, Mintie Patterson does appear in the Cannon household in the 1860 Federal Census, as a 45 year old servant.3
While not an accomplice to her escape, Daniel Cannon's
actions did keep Mintie from again facing the prospect of forced southern
migration. Particularly at the time of these events, farmers in the lower
South were offering high prices for slaves, which many Maryland slaveowners
were often willing to accept. Peter Stack was likely expecting a handsome
profit, while his wife was more concerned with the harsh treatment that
Mintie could expect in the cotton plantations of Mississippi or Alabama.
The Cannon family seemed to value Mintie quite highly despite her slave
status. When Daniel died in August, 1861, she was noted in his inventory
as "Old negro Minty (age 50 years, slave for life)," and valued at $20.4
The newspaper account contends that, due to the Cannon children's fondness
for her, they allowed Mintie to purchase her freedom "for the nominal sum
of $5."
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