Description
Down Memory's Lane by Dr. Donald D. Parker - - (excerpted from longer article) - - "Slavery Days in Parkville and Vicinity” - - In general, slave-traders were detested even by those who dealt with them. However, General George P. Dorris of Platte City seems to have been an exception, was highly respected and “belonged to the aristocracy of Platte County,” though his enemies described him as a brutal dealer. Born in Kentucky, he came to Platte City in 1837. A half mile south of the town near his home, he built a heavy hewed log prison, entered by a trap-door on top. He was engaged in the Negro trade, taking large gangs South every few months. Parkville, apparently, was his natural port of exit. In local papers in August 1859, he was advertising “cash for negroes to take south.” Esteemed, he represented the county in 1854 and again in 1860. In the fall of 1861 he moved to St. Louis, from which city he conducted his large operations, which yielded enormous profits. He became a millionaire, loaned money at usurious interest, took army contracts, and built a palatial residence on his suburban estate. He left $800,000 to his family when he died in 1882. In spite of this seeming exception, slaveholders have asserted that slave-traders and saloon-keepers were tolerated as necessary evils, but that they were both personally loathed and socially ostracized. Dr. John Doy, a Kansas abolitionist, stated that while he was a prisoner in Platte City, he met many brutal dealers. Trexler wrote that Doy thus described a slave gang: “At midnight Gen. 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 sox were drawn over the fists and wrists of the men, in place of mittens, they were then hand cuffed together in pairs and driven into the street, where they were formed in marching order behind the wagons containing the women and children - some of the former tied with rope when considered unruly.” In due time, these were probably marched through Parkville’s Main Street to be loaded on a steamboat at the river’s edge and sold down the river.Date(s) of Creation
1/7/1944