Description
"The Kansas Narrative of John Doy of Lawrence, Kansas - A Plain, Unvarnished Tale" - - (Researcher's note: Due to the numerous references to Platte County, only selected excerpts have been indexed.)
Chapter XI, Incidents of The Slave Trade, p. 60-61 - - A day or two after, another slave trader, of the firm of White, Williams & Co., of Weston (Missouri), quite extensive dealers in human flesh, but, I believe, as kind and humane as men can possibly be in that trade, brought in a fine specimen of a man, 25 years old, strong, muscular, and intelligent, a blacksmith by trade, for whom $1800 dollars had been paid.
His name was George, and he was from New Market, where he had been working 2 years for a man who had never given him a dime for his services, he having paid for his clothing during that time by working on Sundays and holidays.
This trader took the handcuffs from George when he got him into the jail, and reproved him for a remark he had made to his former master, which he said displayed a very improper and unchristian feeling.
It was, “I hope to meet you at the bar of a just God, before you are sent to Hell.”
(Researcher's note: In January 1859 abolitionist John Doy agreed to take a group of 13 African American Kansans north to Iowa on one leg of the Underground Railroad. Dr. Doy and his group were then captured 12 miles north of Lawrence by a group of Missouri slave hunters which included Weston Mayor Benjamin Wood. Doy and his 21 year old son, Charles, were transported back to Weston, Missouri and placed in jail. He was later transferred to the Platte City jail and then to the St. Joseph, Missouri, jail. Along the way they were displayed in the streets and hounded, beaten and nearly hanged. He was charged with a federal offense of "slave stealing” and awaited a sentence of hard labor or death. In jail after a second trial that found him guilty, ten men went from Lawrence to St. Joseph in July 1859 and broke Doy out of jail. He returned to Kansas and later wrote a 137-page narrative describing in detail his experiences in Platte County, Missouri.)Date(s) of Creation
1/1/1860
