Description
“White Cappers Abroad” About 3 miles southeast of Platte City lives an old colored man by the name of Presley Whaley. Presley has been a hard-working economical old Negro and has purchased him a farm of about 80 acres on which he has a house, a good orchard and comfortable surroundings. Pres is a good citizen and is highly respected by all of his neighbors, both white and black. About a year ago Pres lost his wife the sharer of his early labors. Then he came to Tracy and married a colored woman of somewhat doubtful reputation as regards morality. This woman had several daughters, rather good looking mulatto girls whose reputations like their complexions were rather shaded. Now for some time this new family have been living at Uncle Pres’s in “wild and riotous living.” Not only eating up the old Negroes little farm but damaging his reputation by their presence. Saturday a white man from St. Joseph came to Platte City and went to Pres Whaley’s. Saturday night some dozen or more masked men broke into Whaley’s house and finding the stranger in bed with the two girls, they brought him out into the yard, draped in his undergarments, tied him to a young sapling and gave him 32 lashes with a cowhide. They gave him 30 minutes to return to the house, get his clothing and move for parts unknown. It is needless to state that he moved. The three women showed considerable fight and it was necessary to use some force before they could be brought to realize the situation. Uncle Press wisely kept in the background. It is thought that the white cappers were colored men with a few whites to boss the job. Comment is unnecessary.
(Researcher's note: "Beginning in the 1870s, multiple secret vigilante groups were formed across the United States to violently resist the changing social and moral standards of the country. These groups, collectively known as White Caps, originated in Southern Indiana, and later spread across the United States in the last part of the nineteenth century, committing brutal acts of terrorism against anyone whom the group deemed a threat to the moral and social standards of their specific community." https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/items/447ea248-5d87-4641-b917-c44a8987b95f)Date(s) of Creation
8/19/1892
