The Entailed Hat; Or, Patty Cannon's Times

by George Alfred Townsend

Originally published in 1884, The Entailed Hat consists of three different stories: that of the iron smelting company which exploited the bog iron deposits of Worcester County, Maryland; that of the kidnapping of slaves and free negroes by the Joe Johnson-Patty Cannon gang in what is almost a no-man's land, where Dorchester and Caroline Counties, Maryland and Sussex County, Delaware join; and that of the "Hat" itself. Through one central figure, Meshach Milburn, the three stories are interwoven and considerable unity is attained. The author's excellent descriptive writing, the thing which brought him fame as a Civil War correspondent, carries the tale.

A most unusual feature of The Entailed Hat is that, in a period when sweetness and light dominated the novel, stark realism is the key note.

Genres: Historical Fiction

446 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1884

About the author

1841-1914

War correspondent during the American Civil War and novelist.

He wrote for the Philadelphia Inquirer, in 1861 he started to write for the New York Herald.

By 1868, he became a Washington correspondent, working for the "Chicago Tribune," and after 1874, for the "New York Graphic.

His novels included The Entailed Hat (1884), which fictionalized a true story of a woman named Patty Cannon who kidnapped free blacks and sold them into slavery. Townsend's other works include the short story collection Tales of the Chesapeake (1880) and the novel Katy of Catoctin (1887).

Townsend wrote under the pen name "Gath", which was derived by adding an "H" to his initials, and inspired by the biblical passage II Samuel 1:20.

Reviews

[Jennifer]

One of the weirdest dang books I have ever read! The spine of this book with its creepy golden silhouette haunted my childhood from its perch on the family book shelves! It wasn’t until about the age of 40 that I actually read it. It’s an atmospheric portrayal of a time in an isolated nook of Maryland’s landscape, and is part of the story of why we are the way we are today.

[Cheryl Keller]

Remarkable book -- history, drama, comedy... a tale of the Princess Anne area along the Eastern Shore of Maryland in the pre-Civil War days. It is fascinating to read, both for the political and social history and for the dialog.

[Alice Paterra]

Everyone on Delmarva should read this book. It's about who we are and where we came from.

[kait]

DNF.

I read about half. I'm allowing this book to be a lesson in quitting when a book is burning me out.

I read enough to understand the struggle of free black people in this area without getting the happy ending crap that im sure the end is filled with. Oh but slaves are actually so happy to get back to being slaves and the woman learns to love the man she was forced to marry. BOO. (idk if the book actually goes there but that's what it felt like.)

The plot was really just boring to me. I like old books but reading this sounded like the charlie brown people in my head the whole time. Not a great experience.

[Frederick]

Very interesting but dated book about the old Eastern Shore of Maryland and Delaware centered around Princess Anne, Md. I did not know about Patty Cannon before reading this and the danger for free blacks in the border states of being kidnapped and sold into slavery. It was a thriving business. Those were certainly terrible times, no good old days for sure.