Lincoln Cemetery - African American Presence

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»	Kitty Payne
»	Lloyd W. Watts

Pencil sketch of Catherine Payne and her children. (Chester County Historical Society)

Catherine “Kitty” Payne (1816-1850)

Mary Maddox inherited her husband Samuel’s estate when he died in 1839, with any remainder at her death to go to their nephew Samuel Maddox. In 1843, Mary emancipated all seven of the people she held in slavery. They included 27-year-old “Kitty” and her four children, Eliza (5), and Mary (4), James Arthur (2), George (2 mos.) along with two men named Ben and James. Virginia’s manumission laws required them to leave the state with in a year. Mary Maddox accompanied them to Adams County, Pennsylvania, to help them settle there, even filing a deed of manumission with the local court. Her nephew Samuel Maddox, who was deeply in debt, went to Adams County to claim his future inheritance. He and other men kidnapped Catherine “Kitty” Payne and her then three children (infant George had died) and took them back to Rappahannock County. He was about to sell them but Payne somehow charged him with trespass, assault, and battery. The young family was imprisoned for safekeeping and charged for it by the day.

Meanwhile incensed citizens in Adams County tried and convicted the kidnappers in their absence, with white and black witnesses testifying against them. For almost a year, however, the family remained in jail in Rappahannock County. Quakers in Adams County and Loudoun County, Virginia, devoted themselves to her case, but Maddox was acquitted on a technicality. Eventually, his accomplice was captured and sentenced in Adams County, and Maddox renounced his claim. The family was liberated again. They resided with Loudoun Quakers over the winter before returning to Adams County in the spring.

Resources

Mary (Goins) Gandy. Guide My Feet, Hold My Hand. Mary (Goins) Gandy, 1987.

Debra McCauslin. Yellow Hill: Reconstructing the Past: Puzzle of a Lost Community. Gettysburg, Penn.: For the Cause Productions, 2005.

Daphne Hutchison and Theresa Reynolds, On the Morning Side of the Blue Ridge: A Glimpse of Rappahannock County’s Past. Warrenton, Va.: The Rappahannock News, 1983.

Lloyd W. Watts (1834-1870?)

He and his brother John W. were born in Carroll County, Maryland, but moved to Adams County in the 1840s. They both served in the United States Colored Troops during the Civil War. Afterward, Lloyd was a founding member of the Sons of Goodwill. Among other activities, they established Lincoln Cemetery in Gettysburg for African American veterans of the Civil War, who were excluded from the National Cemetery. He was also a teacher and a deacon in St. Paul A.M.E. Zion Church in Gettysburg.