Description
The State Militia Capture Three Runaway Negroes - Bloody Threat [From the Platte County Conservator, Sept. 12, 1862] (excerpt from longer article) - - The Negro Soldiers in Kansas - - We have been informed, and through sources in which we must place credence, that the men who are now engaged in organizing Negro soldiers in Kansas, hold out the idea to these ignorants that soon they will have an opportunity of crossing over into Missouri, and plundering those men who formally held them as slaves.
With the niggers this is a great inducement. They know how comfortably their masters are situated, and their sole idea is how they can most speedily dispossess them of their property.
It is a sad thought for contemplation, to think that the Negroes are to be let loose upon the people to ravish, plunder, and slay and yet it is the truth. It was hardly to be expected that after the authorities in Kansas had encouraged our Negroes to run away from us, that they would not seek to arm those Negroes, in order to wreak a bloody revenge; and yet the facts bear us out in the assertion.
One of their principal men, Jennison, recently declared in his speech at Wyandot, that he should enter Missouri at Kansas City, and that he would leave a streak of blood from there to the south part of the State, or to whatever point he should haul up.
We would be criminally negligent did we not bring these facts before the people of our County. We must be ready at any moment to prepare for this fell swoop of these demons upon our soil. It would seem that it mattered not how loyal Missouri had become, there was still some revenge to be had for past occurrences. We have nothing to depend upon for our defense save our militia, but we are in hopes that they will prove sufficient to repel any such invasions as our threatened.
(Researcher's note: AI Overview: "Col. Charles R. "Doc" Jennison was a notorious anti-slavery Jayhawker in "Bleeding Kansas" and a Union cavalry commander during the Civil War. Based out of Kansas City (with headquarters at the state line), his unit - the 7th Kansas Cavalry - raided western Missouri to liberate slaves, burn secessionist property, and disrupt pro-slavery guerrilla networks.
The Platte County Conservator was a pro-slavery weekly newspaper published in Platte City, Missouri, during the American Civil War from 1862 to 1864 before being suppressed by federal authorities. Its publisher was A. J. Clark.)Date(s) of Creation
9/19/1862
