Description
Kidnapping and Arson - - We regret to be called upon to record one of the most disgraceful cases of kidnapping that has ever occurred in Kansas. On Thursday last, the notorious Jake Hurd, accompanied by another man, unknown, proceeded to the house of Mr. Heath, a brother of the member of the House of Representatives from this county, near Judge Wakefield’s in this county, and captured a colored man who was residing there.
The poor fellow resisted and discharged a gun at his captors, but was finally taken. The miscreants fired the house and fled. The neighbors were soon aroused, extinguished the fire, and followed the party to Lecompton.
A warrant was issued by a justice of the peace in this city and placed in the hands of Sheriff Walker, who proceeded that night to Lecompton, and instituted a search for the guilty parties, but without success. Whether they were concealed in Lecompton, or had then crossed the river and fled to Missouri, is not known.
But they escaped, and more than all, with their prey, the poor colored man, who probably before this time is on his way to lifelong bondage in the far South.
We have no comment to make on these facts. They are a burning and disgraceful comment in themselves. How long shall such things be?
(Researcher's note: Slave trader and kidnapper Jake Hurd was known to operate in Platte County, Missouri.)Date(s) of Creation
3/29/1860
