Description
“Negro Stealing on the Border.” - - The Abolitionists of Kansas have got their Underground Railroad completed, equipped, and in running order, and they are now tasking it to the work of transporting negroes from the Hemp and Tobacco fields of Missouri to regions where they wallow in the luxuries of an unintelligible and unappreciated liberty.
Under its brisk operation, the rich slave holding counties of Platte, Jackson, and Lafayette are likely soon to be considerably thinned of negroes, some of whom will be stolen by the Underground conductors, while others will be sent to Texas and other Southern States to avoid that contingency.
The vindictive Free State men, still smarting at the memory of wrongs, or at supposed wrongs they suffered at the hands of Missourians are driving this Underground Railroad business as a means of wiping out uncancelled scores against their old enemies; and there is no method in which they could add greater gravity to their vengeance.
We know from information received from private sources, that the slave holders on the border are beginning to suffer severely from the constantly occurring stampede of slaves. They are enticed in gangs of dozens and scores, by sympathizers into Kansas, kept concealed in that Territory for a time, and then sent towards Canada, through Iowa.
Last week a company from Weston, Missouri, succeeded in recapturing 12 runaway negroes, and escorting them safely back to Platte County. But such recaptures as this will not frequently occur. Recent occurrences demonstrate clearly that the people of Kansas are not likely to prove ready executors of the Fugitive Slave Law. They are disposed, on the other hand, to obstruct it; and unless a better feeling between the citizens of the State and the Territory be encouraged that now exists, the Border will be the scene of constant conflicts between the old parties than formerly kept that region in a state of alarm. - St. Louis News.Date(s) of Creation
2/8/1859
