Description
“SLAVERY DAYS IN PARKVILLE PROVIDES INTERESTING STORIES - As a River Port, Parkville Played a Very Important Part in Early Slave Trafficking” There was a gradual rise in the value of slaves after 1830 and up to the Civil War. Up to 1840 female slaves sold for $300 to $350 while men sold for $300 to $600. Children from 2 to 5 years of age sold for from $100 to $200. Values increased until in the late 1850s prime male slaves sold for about $1300 and Negro women for about $1000. Children were proportionally high. A simple half sheet of blue paper, eight by five inches, is one of the oldest records possessed by a Parkville resident. It reads: "Know all men by these presents that I have this day sold to T. C. S. Ashby a negro child named Laura mulatto color aged three or four years for and in consideration of three hundred & fifty dollars the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged. And I do hereby warrant the said negro to be sound in mind & body and a slave for life. Lucien McDonnell. Parkville July 6th 1857.” - Col. Park, a Slave Owner - It perhaps is not well known in Parkville that Col. Park was a slaveholder. Rev. Woodward in a public address in 1891 said: “He became a slaveholder, as I understand it, something in this way. He was on his way to attend court. An “old aunty,” whom he knew, met him on the way and begged him with tears, and earnest pleading to buy her child which was to be sold on the block that day at the county seat. His sympathies were touched, the girl was bought and reared in his family, and she and her offspring live near here today. Angeline Washington and her husband William had their nuptials celebrated in the Presbyterian church, your speaker pronouncing the bans. She was a slave only in name. Her and hers were often remembered by Mr. Park, and are now looked after tenderly by his widow’ and daughter.” - Col. Park Kind to Slaves - Col. Park was good to his slaves but they had to mind his word. It was a happy picture down around Park House. Col. Park’s home. Pickaninnies playing on the lawn within call of Mrs. Park’s voice in case there were errands to run, berries to be picked, other things small brown hands and feet could do. But these were sad days for us. - Parkville, a Slave Clearing Port - Aunt Lucy Bailey, born in 1855, as one of her earliest memories as a child, remembers being in a building at the foot of Main Street eating some com bread when she heard a most doleful sound, apparently coming from up Main Street. She ran to the door and as far as her eye could see up the street, she saw Negro slaves chained together coming slowly down the hill. They were singing and moaning in doleful tones as they came. Behind them were a number of wagons in which were Negro women and children. A steamboat was awaiting them at the foot of Main Street. They were all loaded aboard and were sold down the river. This was perhaps 1858 to 1860. Such scenes and occurrences must have taken place from time to time, increasing in frequency as the Civil War approached and continued. James Gazaway (Gasaway) Johnson, familiar figure to many present day residents of Parkville, born in 1851 in Clinton County was transferred to Mississippi in 1861 from which state he did not return until 1874. He states that slave traders and speculators used to come to Parkville on business. On one occasion a tiny slave girl was apparently unwanted, as a trader loaded his cargo at the wharf in Parkville. A family offered to take her and she grew up and lived for many years with the family north of town. Her name was Hunter. - Only Few Old Slaves Remain Here – Now there are but three or four old slaves left. Among these are Spencer Cave, James Gazaway Johnson and Aunt Lucy Bailey. Johnson returned to Missouri in 1874 and came to Parkville in 1893. For a time he lived east of Camden Point. Spencer Cave came to Platte County in 1870 from Marshall, Missouri.Date(s) of Creation
12/16/1938