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 XIII Arrival of My Wife And Daughter - Preparations For Trial, p. 77-78 - - At this moment the judge suddenly ordered us to be reconveyed to the jail, whither we were attended by a large crowd.
At the door we found General (George P.) Dorris bartering for the purchase of John Jones, a mulatto, who had been kidnapped in Kansas a short time before by James Hunley and John Hunley, George Wilson, and two others, all of whom were there trying to sell him.
The crowd gathered around Dorris and the others, crying: “Dicker with old Doy.” “Sell him to old Doy.” “Old Doy will take him.” “Let old Doy have him, he’s from the same county.” One fellow said: “Platte County is a trump. She’s got old Doy and his son, and is after old Brown. She catches Kansas free niggers and sends them where they ought to go.”
(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
