 Slapping handcuffs on her, Alberti demanded that she leave Joel with the prices in Philadelphia and that she come with him back to slavery in Maryland. Catherine Thompson bravely refused Alberti's request and clung tightly to her child. As a mother, she would not surrender her son. Yet as a street diplomat, she also knew that Alberti would be charged as a kidnapper under Pennsylvania law if he brought them both back to Maryland, for Joel was indeed born free in New Jersey.