Shackle Island, the Ghost Slaves of Patty Cannon - near Phillips Landing, Delaware

Notorious ferry boat master Martha "Patty" Cannon  did more than transport people across the Naticoke River at Woodland Ferry in Delaware.  She and her band of hooligans captured, sold, and transported freed slaves back to plantations in the South.  One of the most notorious places she would keep her captured slave out of the public eye, was a secluded island on the Naticoke that became known as "Shackle Island".  For centuries, the island itself has been a ghost.  No one seemed to know where it was located, until recently.

Some have discovered ruins of a moss covered boat and believe that this marks the spot of the lost Shackle Island where the notorious slave smuggler Patty Cannon hid some of her victims.

One of Patty's partners was actually a freed black slave himself known as Captain Jack Purnell. He would team up with other black men in the gang and hunt down, lure and capture black men.  They would then either deposit these captives at a house near the Woodland Ferry or transport these men down river to a secluded island which was difficult to get to for most boats.  But they would use smaller flat bottomed boats to take their prey to a small secluded island in the by waters where they would chain them up to trees and then return for them later.  However, there was an occasion where Captain Jack and his men would not return for a few days and in extreme weather, many of the slaves would die shackled to the trees. Jack and his crew would simply dump the bodies into the river to hide the evidence.  Whether locals stumbled across the iron shackles in the trees or word got out what was going on, it is unknown. However, the name "Shackle Island" stuck. When the operation was shut down in 1829 with the capture and soon after death of Patty Cannon, the notorious island would fade into history.

Woodland Ferry in the early 20th century.  Former ferry master Patty Cannon used this area as a staging area to gather captured free slaves for transport south.  Photo: Department of Transportation http://www.deldot.gov/information/community_programs_and_services/woodland_ferry/galleries.shtml

As the island was forgotten and over time it became even more difficult to find because the shifting waterways of the Nanticoke River changed the landscape so much.  In recent years however, stories have begun to trickle in of hunters and fishermen wandering the area known as Phillips Landing having had some strange experiences. It is rumored that this just may very well be the location of the lost Shackle Island and it isn't even an island any more. With the flow of the Nanticoke River shifting such that it is now a small hill in the middle of swampy area. There has not been any hard evidence such as the remains of iron shackles that have been unearthed to empirically prove that the lost island has been discovered. Those who have found it however, are certain that they have found the lost Shackle Island.  Eerie lights seem to draw people to the place and then fade away. Electronic equipment seem to not want to work properly in a certain area of what is today, the Phillips Landing Recreation Area. People have reported strange sounds eminating from the trees as if someone was moaning in agony.  Other could swear they heard the faint sounds of chains rattling in the distance. One man who was hunting with a friend, stumbled upon the remains of a rotting moss covered boat in the middle of the woods.  This could be evidence that the area was once part of the river itself.

This may very well be what Shackle Island looks like today. I small rise in a swampy area.  The only thing remaining - the spirits of those killed by Patty Cannon. 
Photo credit: © Jason P Ross | Dreamstime.com

The Phillips Landing State Park is near Laurel, Delaware. Based on descriptions of those who believe they have stumbled upon "Shackle Island", it could very well be in the area where Ellis Grove Road ends at latitude:  38.557203  longitude: -75.685774. So if you are out exploring this area of Delaware, be sure to keep an eye and ear out for the ghost slaves of Patty Cannon.  Maybe you will be the first to discover absolute proof of the lost Shackle Island!


Related article:  The Ghost of Patty Cannon - Woodland Ferry, Delaware

View the Index of Haunted Places

 References:
Department of Transportation http://www.deldot.gov/information/community_programs_and_services/woodland_ferry/galleries.shtml 

http://www.sptimes.com/News/061701/Travel/Simon_Legree_in_petti.shtml

http://www.castleofspirits.com/stories06/pattycannon.html

The Ghost of Patty Cannon - Woodland Ferry, Delaware

In the late 1700s at a place known as Woodland Ferry, located in Colonial Delaware, a woman by the name of Martha "Patty" Cannon ran a ferry that transported folks across the Nanticoke River.  Patty lived just north in the nearby town of Johnson's Corners.  Patty was not an ordinary woman, on many levels.  She was large and burly in appearance and stood over 6 feet tall.  Some say that she could best any man in a fight.  What was really scary about Patty Cannon though, was that she was just as nasty on the inside as she appeared on the outside and was a very murderous woman.

The skull of Patty Cannon is all that is left as a reminder of her brutal legacy.  It is kept in a hat box in a library office.

When Patty's ferry traffic was wavering, she would dabble in human trafficking.  Capturing freed slaves in the area and then re-selling them to plantation owners in the south.  She had a band of men who would help her capture these freed slaves and shackle them in hiding places such as buildings near the ferry and a tiny secluded island just off the waterways of the Naticoke River. Many slaves died over the years, meeting their death in shackles in one of Patty's hiding spots.  Patty's exploits were eventually discovered by local authorities in 1829 when remains of some of those she killed was found in a field near her home and she was arrested. She admitted to murdering eleven people including her husband and one of her children in 1826.  Scheduled for execution, she took some poison that someone had smuggled into her jail cell during a visit.  And just to be sure that Patty was dead, the jailers cut off her head.  

The Woodland Ferry circa 1930 with the ferry master's building in the background on the shore.  Photo: Delaware Department of Transportation http://www.deldot.gov/information/community_programs_and_services/woodland_ferry/galleries.shtml

Woodland Ferry still exists to this day.  It is said that the ghost of Patty Cannon can be seen lingering around the area where the ferry master's building was located. It is perhaps because after her original grave in the yard of the Sussex County Jail was exhumed to make way for construction, her severed skull was removed from the grave when it was relocated. After exchanging hands for a while, and even being put on display in a museum in Dover, it ended up being stored in a hat box in a library.  Some claim to have seen the ghostly figures of some of her former slaves she kept in the basement the house as well.  There are strange disturbances and the phantom sounds of rattling chains may be heard on occasion.

The remote island known by locals as "Shackle Island" where she reportedly kept slaves in transit is believed to have been found by a few as they describe many strange experiences take place in this location as well.  Until recent years, this island was believed to be lost in the shifting waters of the Naticoke River.

Johnson's Corners, which is now situated right on the border with Maryland, was renamed by locals to Reliance, Maryland because of the bad stigma associated with the place due to Patty Cannon's rain of terror.  They did not care for the negative association and as for them, they never cared to hear about or see the Ghost of Patty Cannon ever again.

Woodland Ferry is located at:
5123 Woodland Church Road, Seaford, DE 19973, USA
Latitude: 38.600342  Longitude: -75.657569 

Related stories: Shackle Island, the Ghost Slaves of Patty Cannon - near Phillips Landing, Delaware

View the Index of Haunted Places

References: 
Delaware Department of Transportation http://www.deldot.gov/information/community_programs_and_services/woodland_ferry/galleries.shtml
http://www.sptimes.com/News/061701/Travel/Simon_Legree_in_petti.shtml
http://www.castleofspirits.com/stories06/pattycannon.html