USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri (the center state) one hundred years in the Union, 1820-1921, Volume I > Part 72
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out to take places in the faculty and many of them brought money with them. One of these, Rev. Dr. Ezra Stiles Ely, who was to become the head of the preparatory department of the college is said to have brought $100,000 of eastern money when he came.
Dr. Nelson made no concealment of his anti-slavery views. After the general fight which broke up the camp meeting a body of armed men rode up to Dr. Nel- son's house one night and called him out. The minister warned the mob not to come into the yard. The spokesman told the doctor that they had come to tell him he must leave Missouri immediately and never return. This Dr. Nelson agreed to do and moved to Quincy.
"Eternal vigilance was the price of slavery" in northeast Missouri, to quote Holcombe, the indefatigable preserver of county historical data thirty years ago. Two agents of the American Colonization Society, which had for its object the gradual removal of negroes to Liberia, brought into Hannibal a box of coloniza- tion literature about 1836. These men named Garrett and Williams settled in the vicinity of a new town called Philadelphia. A band of men headed by Uriel Wright organized at Palmyra, marched to Philadelphia, found the "incendiary documents" hidden under corn husks in an outbuilding. They took Garrett and Williams prisoners and marched away with them some miles. Under a tree on the bank of North river, the regulators formed a hollow square. Uriel Wright, famous at that early day as an orator, made a speech and delivered the decision. The two men were given the choice of being hung from that tree, or of leaving Missouri and remaining away forever. They left. The box of books was taken to Palmyra and was burned with formality and speechmaking. Then followed a series of meetings and the adoption of resolutions that not only abolitionists but all supporters of colonization must leave. But reaction from the extreme pro- slavery sentiment took place. Two years after the colonization agents were driven out of the state a negro women Harriet "appearing to be entitled to her freedom and of good character" was given a license to remain in Missouri. This was the first case in which such a privilege was given to a negro in Marion county.
Three abolitionists, George Thompson, James Burr and Alanson Work, crossed over from the Illinois side and met some negroes on the Fabius river. They planned with the slaves to take them across the river at night and start them by the underground railroad to Canada. The negroes betrayed the plot. The three men were captured, tried at Palmyra and sent to the penitentiary at Jefferson City to serve twelve year terms. The charge was grand larceny-"stealing and attempting to carry away certain slaves." The men remained in the penitentiary several years and were pardoned by Governor Edwards. A subscription paper was started in Palmyra and vicinity "to remunerate the fidelity of the slaves of R. N. Woolfolk and others in betraying to their masters the base attempts of certain villains in the shape of white men who have attempted to decoy them off." The sum of twenty dollars, sixty-two and one-half cents was raised. Mark Twain's father was one of the jurors in the trial of Thompson, Burr and Works. These three young men were preparing for the ministry and were students at the Mission Institute in Illinois at the time they became involved with the Missouri authorities.
Eight years after the trouble which broke up the camp meeting and which
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resulted in the stabbing of Bosley by Muldrow, David Nelson, Jr., came over to Little Union church and attempted to address the congregation at the close of the sermon by Rev. Mr. Ayres. Bosley was there. He arose and told Mr. Nelson he must not speak. "My wife is a member of this church," Dr. Bosley said, "and it shall not be polluted by abolitionism or abolitionists. I now demand that you leave here peaceably. If you do not, force will be used to put you out." Nelson started to leave but went back to the pulpit. Thereupon Bosley repeated his notice and when Nelson did not leave, he stepped forward, took him by the . arm and led him to the door and put him out.
About the middle of the fifties, the loss of slave property became so aggravat- ing to the slaveholders of Northeast Missouri that northern Methodist ministers were proscribed in some localities. At a meeting in Marion county, resolutions were adopted :
"That, with all due respect for religious toleration, we, the citizens of Fabius and adjoining townships, do solemnly protest against the practice of the said Methodist Episco- pal Church North in sending ministers among us, and we respectfully request such ministers , to make no more appointments in this vicinity;
"That we are situated contiguous to Quincy, a city containing some of the vilest abolition thieves in the Mississippi Valley, and as we have already suffered so much at the hands of those incendiaries, we regard it absolutely necessary to the protection of our slave interests, that we close our doors against abolition and free soil influence of every character and shade whatever, and that we shall therefore esteem it highly improper for any citizen hereafter to countenance or encourage the preaching or teaching in this community of the ministers of the northern wing of the Methodist church."
About the middle of the forties the agents of the underground railroad, "Liberators" they called themselves, became so active and successful that mass meetings were held in Marion, Lewis and Ralls counties to "put a stop to negro stealing." These meetings declared the purpose to administer to abolitionists "such punishment as we deem necessary." Vigilance committees were formed to examine all strangers and if these people passing through the country could not give a satisfactory account of themselves they were to be sent out of the state. The penalty for returning was fifty lashes. Notices were put up at the Canton and other ferry landings on the Missouri side of the Mississippi that these abolitionists would be hung until they were "dead, dead, dead." Still they came in various disguises, distributing their literature. Slaves in bunches disappeared and then insult was added to injury by letters from the "Liberators" to the despoiled owners in Missouri. By way of retaliation a party of Missourians crossed on the ice one March night and burned the chapel of what was known as Mission Institute, a college conducted by free soilers, of whom Rev. Dr. Nelson was the leader.
What Slavery Meant in St. Louis.
A vivid picture of what slavery meant in St. Louis, even under the best con- ditions, was given by Henry M. Post. This actual occurrence might have given Churchill the suggestion for his account of a slave sale to a young northerner at the east front of the courthouse. Mr. Post wrote the account as given to him by Colonel William T. Mason who came to St. Louis from New York, seeking
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his fortune in the early forties. Young Mason first settled in St. Charles, where he became the tutor for the children of Edward Bates and other closely related families. He moved to St. Louis and began the practice of law, having an office with Hamilton Gamble whom he served as military aide with the rank of colonel during the Civil war. Mason told Post this story of how he became a slave- holder from humanitarian motives :
"Colonel Joseph B. Crockett was living in St. Louis practicing law in 1849, when the 'gold fever' broke out in California. With many others he went overland in pursuit of wealth. For some reason he left in St. Louis a young negro slave woman named Jane. This woman married an unusually bright young colored man named George Waters. They established a home and there were born to them three children, one boy and two girls. George, himself, was a slave but always hired his own time from his master. He made his living by caring for offices and men's rooms and was serving me in that capacity when the incident I am about to relate took place. One morning about the last of May, 1858, George came into my office looking the picture of misery and distress, the tears rolling down his cheeks, and said: 'Colonel Crockett is in town. He has had Jane and the children thrown into Lynch's slave pen and is going to sell them to be sold South and I shall never see my wife and children again. Can't you do something to stop it?'
"I was a young man then and knew little of the workings of the system of slavery, but the fact that this family was to be thus separated forever caused my blood to boil. 'Where is Colonel Crockett?' I asked. George said he was stopping at the Planters.' I said I would go and see him at once, and find out what could be done, telling George, in the meantime, to wait about till I returned. I went to the hotel and sent my card to Colonel Crockett requesting an interview. The messenger returned and said the colonel would see me in his room. He met me with a look of inquiry on his face and said: 'To what have I the honor of this visit?' I said: 'Are you the gentleman who owns Jane Waters and her three children?' 'I am,' he answered.
"'Have you placed them in Lynch's slave pen and intend to let them be sold South, and separate the wife from her husband and the children from their father forever?' " 'They are my property, sir, and I am settling up all my affairs, and I am turning everything into money, before I return to California, my home. I expect to sell them today, and they will go South.'
"We were standing facing each other. My temper got the better of me and I opened out on him in the most vigorous style, if not the most elegant, denouncing an institution that would tolerate such things and the man who would be guilty of such inhumanity.
"The colonel stood looking at me closely and smiling all of the time. When I got through he said: 'Young man, where were you raised?' I answered: 'In New York state. sir, where the curse of slavery does not exist.' He rejoined: 'That accounts for the different way in which we look at this thing. Jane and her children belong to me and I can do as I please with them. She is a likely breeding woman and I am offered $1,800 for them; but since you take this matter so much to heart I will tell you what I will do; I will sell Jane and her children to you for $1,000 cash.'
"Immediately, I said: 'I will take them, sir. When will you close the bargain?' Wc appointed two o'clock that day at my office, and at that time he was on hand and sat at my desk and wrote a bill of sale of the 'property' just as he would have done for a mare and colt, or a cow and calf, counted the money and wrote an order on Lynch to deliver the chattels, and soon Jane and her husband and children were reunited.
"Unexpectedly I found myself a slaveholder. The burden was more than I was willing to carry. I determined to free them at once, and looking up the law found that the only way I could do this was by making application to the circuit court for permission to do so. This permission could be obtained only upon my filing a deed of manumission and giving bond that they should never become a charge on the county. This was done and the then mayor of the city and a prominent merchant went on my bond, and Jane and her children were declared free.
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"Lynch was a negro trader, a sort of commission merchant. He kept his 'pen,' which was absolutely a jail, on Locust street, between Fourth and Fifth streets. When he delivered my property to me, I asked him how many people he had in his yard. He said there were some thirty or forty, but some were going south that afternoon, and the next day those who were left were going on the block at the courthouse. They came and went all the time. Lynch asked what I paid for mine, and when I told him he said he did not suppose Crockett was such a - fool as that; he (Lynch) would give me $500 for my ' bargain right then."
Mr. Post said in his narrative that the Waters family continued to live in St. Louis for many years. William T. Mason married Louise, a daughter of General Stephen Watts Kearny, of New Mexico and California fame. Descendants of Mason are well known in St. Louis.
Thomas Shackleford's Recollections.
In his address before the Missouri Historical Society in 1901, Thomas Shackle- ford gave some personal recollections of slavery in Missouri :
"John Harrison was a large hemp grower in Howard county. He had many slaves and was kind to them. To illustrate that the spirit of liberty is inherent in the human heart, I recall that I was at his home (he was the father of my wife), in the early 50's, when a poor wayfaring man and his wife called to stay all night. He was a sorry specimen of humanity, traveling with a poor horse hitched to a rickety old chaise. In the morning one of the slaves was directed to get the poor man's horse, which he hitched up. The slave was named Smith, and as he passed his mistress she said to him: 'Smith, how would you like to be that man? Aren't you better off?' 'Ah, Missus,' he replied, 'he has nobody to hinder him.' This poor slave, although well-treated and well-fed, yet longed to be situated where no one hindered him.
"Slavery had many dark phases, but it was always a pleasure to consider only the bright side, where there was such a natural attachment between master and slave, as in the case of this man. Let me illustrate by two incidents. He had a slave named Brown who was a member of the same church, and attended the same class meetings, of which I was leader. Brown had a wife who belonged to a neighbor who had failed, and the wife of Brown and all her children were about to be sold to a negro trader. Her master was a kind man and had permitted his slave to hire her own time. The law did not permit the slaves to be emancipated and live in the state. Brown came to me and said he was about to be separated from his wife and children. He said his wife had money enough to pay for herself and children. I told him to send her to me. She came with silver to the amount of $1,000 in her handkerchief. I took the money, purchased her, and had the bill of sale made to me. I indorsed the fact on the bill of sale, and kept it among my secret papers. Publicly she was recognized as my property, but kept, as before, her own earnings. When it was apparent that the federal troops were going to occupy Missouri, many per- sons sent their slaves South in the vain hope of saving them. Mr. Harrison made prepara- tions to send his South, prepared his tents for the journey. Brown came to me to intercede against being sent away. I told him to go to his master and say to him that he and his associates would be faithful until legally set free. I came upon them just as they were having the interview, and found both in tears. It is needless to say that the tents were folded up and stored in the garret. All save one remained faithful, and Mr. Harrison provided homes for all. Such incidents were common, but Northern men read only of the dark side of the picture. You would hardly believe it when I tell you I never read 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.' I was satisfied the picture was overdrawn.
"My father had died when I was about fourteen years of age. My mother was left a widow and had the charge and management of many slaves. We had a law in our statutes that a slave should be punished with forty lashes save one, who insulted a white man. One day the constable came to arrest a slave for insulting a white man. My mother told me to
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"MISS ANN" OF DOVER
A historic character of Central Missouri who "aint got no age,"' who has a "morphine cat" and whose favorite phrase is " Aint it dish ?''
5
DRED SCOTT
The long pending litigation in behalf of this Missouri slave nullified the Missouri Compromise
SLAVERY AND AFTER 671
go to the trial. The evidence was that when the white man was trading with the slave an altercation took place, and the white man cursed the slave, and the slave cursed the white man in return. A great crowd was present. The magistrate heard the evidence and con- demned the slave to be lashed. He then took me aside and said: 'Your slave is not guilty, but to satisfy this crowd of angry men, I had to pass this sentence.' I was indignant. 'What,' said I, 'whip an innocent man?' 'Yes,' said the magistrate. While he was talking the constable came and asked if he was to be whipped publicly. 'No,' said the magistrate, 'take him to the smoke house.' The slave was stripped and taken into the house, and the crowd counted the lashes. When the officer came out he said to the negro, 'You must not tell what occurred.' 'No,' said the negro, 'I will not.' Then said the officer to me: You must not tell. I only lashed the post.' I said I would only tell my mother. When I came home I then asked my mother what it meant that the innocent negro was to be whipped. She said to me: 'Ah, my son, I cannot well explain these things to you, but before this evil of slavery is righted, this land will be deluged in blood.' She then called my attention to the fact that sons in good families, as well as husbands, were having children by the slave . women, that this social evil was bad enough among free parties, but among bond women was terrible. My mother died before the cloud burst, but her precepts were so indelibly impressed on my young mind that when the secession of the states began, I looked anxiously in fear of the fulfillment of her prophecy."
Dred Scott and His "Case."
About 1858 people on the streets of St. Louis called attention to a man of striking appearance and said: "That's Dred Scott." Other people, especially strangers in the city, looked a second time and with evident interest at the stout- built figure, the whiskers and the military bearing. Dred Scott was then about fifty years old. He was of pure negro blood, born in Virginia, and might have passed for an African king. In that period the most military looking man in St. Louis was Thornton Grimsley. He had invented and manufactured the favorite saddle of the United States dragoons. For two generations he was in demand for grand marshal of processions. Physically Dred Scott was "another Thornton Grimsley done in ebony," as a newspaper reporter described him.
For five years the Dred Scott case had been in the courts. It had been the most talked of litigation. It had brought from the United States Supreme court a decision that the Missouri Compromise was of no force. The papers were full of it.
Dred Scott was the slave and body servant of Dr. Emmerson, a surgeon in the United States Army, stationed in St. Louis. When the surgeon was ordered to the post at Rock Island he took his slave with him. There Dred Scott made the acquaintance of a colored girl named Harriet. The girl belonged to Major Taliaferro of the army and had been brought from Virginia. Dred Scott and Harriet were married. When Dr. Emmerson was ordered to Fort Snelling in what is now Minnesota he was induced by his slave to buy Harriet. Two children were born, one of them on the "Gypsy," during a steamboat trip in free territory. Surgeon Emmerson came back to Jefferson Barracks, bringing the Dred Scott family. He died in 1852. The Scotts passed to the possession, by sale as it was supposed, of John F. A. Sanford. Here was an unusual opportunity to test the Missouri Compromise, by which Congress had declared slavery should not exist north of parallel 36° 30', except within the limits of Missouri. Not only had Scott and Harriet been taken into the free territory, but one of the children, Eliza, had been born there. In 1853 suit was brought in the St. Louis circuit court.
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The first decision freed the family. But Sanford took the case to the supreme court of Missouri which reversed the lower court. There was another trial in the St. Louis court. One of the charges was that Sanford had unlawfully laid hands on "the said Dred Scott, Harriet Scott, Eliza Scott and Lizzie Scott." Sanford won. By this time the interest of anti-slavery people in the East had been aroused. Money was supplied in considerable quantities to carry on the case." One newspaper account had it that enough was contributed to "buy a hundred slaves." The best lawyers in St. Louis were retained to carry the case to the United States Supreme Court on a writ of error. On the side of the Scotts, Montgomery Blair, afterwards postmaster general, headed the counsel. Senator Henry S. Geyer and others represented Sanford.
The main question was whether the Missouri Compromise was in accord- ance with the Constitution of the United States; whether Congress had the power to provide as follows: "That in all that territory ceded by France to the United States under the name of Louisiana which lies north of 36 degrees and 30 minutes north latitude, not included within the limits of the state contemplated by this act, slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than the punishment of crimes whereof the parties shall have been duly convicted, shall be and is hereby forever prohibited."
The case was argued in 1854. The Supreme Court decided against Dred Scott. But it held up the decision over a year. Horace Greeley, in his "American Conflict," said the delay was deliberate on the part of the majority, the purpose being to postpone the announcement until after the Presidential election of 1856. He added, "It is quite probable that its action in the premises, if made public at the time originally intended, would have reversed the issue in that Presidential election." Buchanan defeated Fremont, who carried a number of northern states.
The decision of the court was announced in March, 1857, two days after Buchanan's inauguration. It was rendered by Chief Justice Taney, in whose honor a Missouri county, which gave Republican majorities after the war, was named. The views of the court filled 125 pages. Briefly, the court held that no slave or descendant of a slave could sue in a United States court because such person was not and could not be made a citizen. From the foundation of the republic and previously slaves had been regarded as inferiors and had no rights which the white man was bound to respect. The view had been held in both England and the United States. Therefore, the act of Congress in prohibiting slavery north of 36 degrees and 30 minutes was not warranted by the Constitu- tion. "Neither Dred Scott himself, nor any of his family, was made free by being carried into this territory."
There was widespread sympathy for the Scotts as soon as the court's decision was known. A movement was started to purchase freedom for the family. But . when the title of Sanford was looked into, it appeared that he was holding the family as executor of the Emmerson estate. The surgeon had made a will be- queathing a life interest in the Scotts to his wife, the property eventually to go to a daughter, Henrietta Emmerson. The real owner was discovered to be a lady living in Boston, whose husband was a Congressman. And Boston was the anti- slavery center where was the greatest sympathy for the Scotts and whence had come funds for the prosecution of the case. Very promptly was set in motion the
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procedure to manumit Dred Scott and family. A non-resident could not act. Therefore, the Boston lady transferred the slave property to Taylor Blow of St. Louis and Mr. Blow at once filed the deed of freedom in court. Dred Scott was offered liberal inducements to tour the country and exhibit himself and family in museums. He was in demand for lectures. But with a mental dignity which matched his physical he declined all offers and accepted only local fame.
The Case Judge Dyer Defended.
When he was eighty years old, Judge David P. Dyer, of the Federal court at St. Louis, remembered well his personal experience with the slavery law of Missouri :
"I was admitted to the bar by Judge A. H. Buckner at Bowling Green in March, 1859. He was the judge of the circuit court that year. The grand jury indicted a man by the name of Knapp of Illinois, whose brother wa's afterwards congressman from the state of Illinois. Knapp was a John Brown sort of man. He believed that everybody had a right to be free. He believed it was his duty under his conviction to point the way to freedom of every man that was in slavery. We had a statute at that time in Missouri which im- posed a penitentiary sentence upon any man who would persuade, incite or ask any negro to leave his master and seek freedom in Canada or a northern state. Knapp went out to Ashley in Pike county and saw a negro belonging to old John McCormick, talked to him about what his rights were as a man to be free. The negro gave his master the information and McCormick and Sam Russell got the negro to make an arrangement to meet Knapp at some place at night in the forest and there to discuss the matter with him so they could testify in court against Knapp. Negroes at that time could not testify and at that time the defendant could not testify himself. The trap was laid and the conversa- tion was had and the indictment was returned. Knapp was arrested, lodged in jail and I, having just been admitted to practice,-Knapp having no money,-was appointed by the court to defend him. I made the best effort I could and told what a mean, contemptible thing it was to form this conspiracy and trap this old fellow, but the jury didn't pay much attention to me and they went out and came back with a verdict of guilty and a sentence of five years in the Missouri penitentiary. Old Johnson Hendrick, who was a slave owner and believer in the verdict of the jury, went over to Knapp and said, 'Mr. Knapp, I want to congratulate you, sir.' Knapp said, 'I don't see anything to be congratulated for. I have done nothing except to do what I believed to be my Christian duty of helping my fellow-man. I am to be sentenced to the penitentiary at Jefferson City, there to be among thieves and murderers for doing nothing more than I would expect someone to do for me under similar circumstances.' 'Don't let us get into that. I am not going to discuss that matter with you. What I want to congratulate you on is that if you had another lawyer like Dyer you would have gone for ten years instead of five.' Now, that is a matter of history that that old man went to the penitentiary and remained in the penitentiary until Hamilton R. Gamble turned him out. These are things you don't hear of in this country now. It was a fact then."
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