Description
"Letter From St. Joseph" - - (excerpted from longer article) - - Six fine counties, the best in the State, are embraced in what is known as the “Platte Purchase,” and they lay in a narrow strip, and bounded by Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa.
It is not more than a day’s ride from any point in these 6 counties to either Kansas, Nebraska, of Iowa, and its locality will compel the few slaves now in them to be taken off to the interior of the State, or to the South, during the next year.
In 1856 the number of slaves in the six counties referred to was about 5800. The number is now estimated to be as follows :
Platte County 2,500
Buchanan 1,500
Andrew 600
Holt 300
Nodaway 140
Atchison 80
Estimated Total 5,120
St. Louis County alone had in 1856, 4223 slaves. So you will perceive that, at the present time, the six Platte counties by a fair estimate have only 897 more slaves than St. Louis county in 1856.
It is a fact not denied, but admitted generally, that the slave population of this part of the State is rapidly decreasing and that the “Platte Purchase” will attain the free State condition in a very short time.
In this city (Kansas City) the eye beholds the free laborer in all the departments of labor, and slave labor is so scarce that it is considered the most nominal interest we have. St. Joseph is now entitled to be enrolled in the list of the free cities of the West.Date(s) of Creation
2/19/1859
