Description
A letter to the Boston Post dated Quindaro, Kansas Territory, August 4th (1857) says:
A good deal of local excitement and inflammatory feeling towards Quindaro has recently been excited, and now exists in the adjacent portions of Missouri.
Reports are circulated and have obtained belief that the slaves across the river are enticed to come here by the citizens of this town (Quindaro), and when pursued and identified are still kept from their owners in defiance of law.
These rumors naturally produce great excitement in Missouri; some of the newspapers are beginning to make inflammatory appeals, and in two instances projects have been set on foot for an organized band to come over here with hostile purposes.
I am assured by a perfectly reliable gentleman, who resides in Missouri, that the Blue Lodge is again in operation in Platte County.
(Researcher's note: AI summary - "Blue Lodges" were oath bound, secret pro-slavery societies formed in western Missouri in 1854 following the Kansas – Nebraska act. Their goal was to flood the Kansas territory with illegal voters, intimidate anti-slave slavery settlers and force Kansas to enter the union as a slave state, sparking the violent conflict known as Bleeding Kansas. They were created by prominent Missouri pro-slavery leaders like Benjamin F. Stringfellow to counter Northern abolitionist groups such as the New England Immigrant Aid Company. They were also known by names like "Social Band" or "Sons of the South" and used secret passwords, handshakes, and strict oaths. Armed members regularly crossed the border from Missouri to Kansas to violently red territorial and install pro slavery legislatures.)Date(s) of Creation
8/22/1857
