Great New Orleans Kidnapping Case Study

Dynasty Allen
History 3071
March 31, 2016
Exam 2
The Great New Orleans Kidnapping Case: Race,Law, and Justice in the Reconstruction Era, by Michael Ross highlights some of the most critical moments in the height of Radical Reconstruction and in the history of New Orleans. In June 1870, two African American women kidnapped a seventeen-month-old named Mollie Digby. This happened in front of Mollie’s New Orleans home. Molly Digby, was the daughter of a working-class Irish family in New Orleans. The twenty-eight year old Louisiana governor, Henry Clay Warmoth put an Afro- Creole detective named John Baptiste Jourdain on this case. A big reward was also posted for the return of Mollie Digby and the capture of the people responsible for the crime.

The New Orleans police force became racially integrated. John Baptiste Jourdain, a man of mixed race, became the lead detective on the publicized Digby kidnapping case. Men of color ran for office, accepted patronage posts, or, like Jourdain, joined the integrated police force. Afro-Creoles took on all of these newly integrated positions while understanding that their accomplishments or failures could affect all black people in Louisiana. If they didn’t succeed, ex- Confederate reactionaries could validate restoring white supremacy. If they did succeed they could convince whites to join biracial coalitions and work alongside other Afro- Creoles for efficiency. “Although some Afro- Creoles sought social distance from former slaves they knew that whites considered them representatives of the race as a whole... If they proved inept, it would bolster the opponent of biracial

This is demonstrated heavy by the Digby Kidnapping case. Once editors soon realized how the story could grow. It took a few days for the public to realize the child was really missing but interest in the story did not steadily grow until the readers learned that Mollie was abducted by two Afro- Creole women of color. This case was now calling attention and scaring white parents throughout the city of New Orleans. The idea of a seemingly respectable Afro- Creole women abducting a white baby for ransom terrified elite white families in Garden District mansions and French Quarter who relied on African American nannies to care for their children. The Digby story came about when Americans had become fascinated with true crime stories. Newspaper editors who once only focused on business and political news before reconstruction, had discovered that accounts of sensational crimes made more money and sold more papers. The Digby investigation, with its many false leads, became extremely popular. When Mollie Digby was taken from her front yard in June of 1870, the swirling of Reconstruction chaos seemed to reach a peak. Media outlets began unprecedented press coverage of the story. Missing children were not new to the city of New Orleans, but this was the opportunity for the owners of news outlets to have their distortions of the case publicized. Many different ideas were swirled around in the press. One publication