Description
Down Memory's Lane by Dr. Donald D. Parker - - (excerpted from longer article) - - "Slavery Days in Parkville and Vicinity” - - Itinerant buyers visited the smaller towns at regular intervals while the larger places had their permanent buyers. St. Joseph had one such firm in 1856 and sent many slaves South. Dr. John Doy, referring to above, wrote: “During our imprisonment (in Platte City in the fifties) numbers of slaves were lodged in the jail by different traders, who were making up gangs to take or send to the south. Every slave when brought in, was ordered to strip naked, and was minutely examined for marks, which with the condition of the teeth and other details, were carefully noted by the trader in his memorandum book. Many facts connected with these examinations were too disgusting to mention.” Relatively, after 1830 the whites increased much faster than the slaves in Missouri, but this was not the case in Platte County. Here in 1840, 1 person out of 10 was a slave; in 1860, 1 out of 6; in 1860, after many had already been sold South, 1 out of 5 1/2. In 1840 there were but 850 slaves; in 1850. there were 2,840; in 1860, 3,313.Date(s) of Creation
1/7/1944