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. 63-64 - - When the slaves were brought to the jail and learned what was to be their fate, often entirely unsuspected by them, the men would beg the traders to allow them to see their wives and children before leaving.
The traders invariably promised to gratify them: their wives and children should come to the jail tomorrow or the next day; but, as invariably, that morrow never came to the poor, despairing fathers and husbands.
They were generally driven off in the night, and no opportunity was allowed them to bid farewell to those whom they held dear, and whom they might never hope to see again on earth.
Oh! May God preserve me from ever again witnessing such a scene of suffering and anguish as always attends the departure of a slave coffle for the South!
The first gang of slaves was soon made up. At midnight, Gen. (George P.) Dorris, his son, and assistants came to the jail and ordered the slaves to get ready to leave.
As it was quite cold, a pair of socks were drawn over the fists and wrists of each of the men, instead of mittens; they were handcuffed together in pairs and driven into the street, where they were formed in marching order behind wagons containing the women and children - some of the former tied with ropes when considered unruly - and thus, conducted by six or eight drivers on mules, they started on their journey for the Southern market, in which they were to be sold to the highest bidder, whether he were a man or a brute beast in man’s shape.
Immediately after the departure of one gang, the traders went to work to fill the jail for another, and so on. Once there were as many as five started in a week.
Of course, what with those who are thus sent off and those who escape, this part of Missouri must soon be swept of slaves, as none are now brought into that State from others.
(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
