Medium: Text
Date: November 18, 1856
According to an explanation written by Edward Hoogland on the outside of the document, Briscoe Davis’ sister (unnamed) wrote this complaint describing the October 24, 1856 looting of Mr. Davis’…
Medium: Text
Date: November 12, 1856
A list of free state prisoners in custody at Lecompton, Kansas Territory. Most of the prisoners had been captured at the Battle of Hickory Point on September 13, 1856. The…
Medium: Text
Date: September 3, 1856
A list of the voters in Kansas Territory’s 7th senatorial district, which included Manhattan and the area surrounding it. Voters were categorized as free soilers, proslavery, and doubtful. The census…
Medium: Text
Date: May, 1856
A portion of the testimony taken before a Franklin County grand jury, under the direction of Judge Sterling G. Cato, charged with identifying the parties involved in the May 24,…
Medium: Text
Date: February 1856
A printed invitation to a Washington’s birthday ball hosted by the Kansas Rifles No. 1 at the Free State Hotel on February 22, 1856.
Medium: Text
Date: December 8, 1855
A draft of an agreement between Governor Wilson Shannon, representing the territorial government, and Charles Robinson and James Lane, representing the free state movement, settling the dispute that resulted in…
Medium: Text
Date: January-February, 1855
This census was taken in order to determine eligible voters for elections to be held as proclaimed by Governor Andrew Reeder on November 10, 1854. The categories for information in…
Medium: Text
Date: January-February, 1855
This census was taken in order to determine eligible voters for elections to be held as proclaimed by Governor Andrew Reeder on November 10, 1854. The categories for information in…
Medium: Text
Date: circa 1895
John Armstrong assisted a slave named Ann Clarke, owned by G. W. Clarke, to escape into Iowa. He described the event in detail, including how she escaped, was captured, and…
Medium: Text
Date: July 13, 1895
Mr. Speer described his knowledge of the slaves owned by James Skaggs. Mr. Skaggs lived on Kaw half-breed lands about a mile from Lecompton. Speer also described an encounter he…
Medium: Text
Date: September 1, 1895
This reminiscence, apparently, was based on an interview by Miss Zu Adams with Mrs. J. B. Abbott in 1895 and typed from notes she had taken during the visit. Mrs.…
Medium: Text
Date: September 16, 1895
Samuel Adair, Osawatomie, Kansas, described the two slaves that he had encountered. One was an eight to ten year old boy that had been hired by a merchant from Kansas…
Medium: Text
Date: March 26, 1902
The letter describes two incidents involving female slaves. One involved a trade of a female slave owned by Fox Booth to someone named Reynolds for a white horse in 1855.…
Medium: Text
Date: July 13, 1895
Writing from Lecompton, William Leamer described several families who had slaves when he arrived in Kansas Territory in 1856. The information is very brief. This item is from information collected…
Medium: Text
Date: July 22, 1895
Isaac Maris was responding to a request for information about slaves in Kansas Territory. He provides the names of several families who had slaves and describes the escape of one…
Medium: Text
Date: 1895
Mr. Freeland gave a detailed account of the slaves owned by Judge Rush Elmore and his wife. The reminiscence contained some stereotypical views and phrases concerning African Americans. This account…
Medium: Text
Date: 1895
Mr. Freeman came to Kansas Territory as the slave of Thomas Bayne. Mr. Freeman described his childhood memories with his owner, who was about three months older and to whom…
Medium: Text
Date: October 20, 1895
Fannie Cole wrote about slaves in Kansas Territory that she remembered from her childhood. Her family came to the territory in the spring of 1855 and settled in Shawnee County.…
Medium: Text
Date: September 11, 1895
Mr. Bayne wrote from Williamstown, Kansas, describing slaves that he had owned. He also listed a number of other families who owned slaves in Kansas during the territorial period in…
Medium: Text
Date: Around 1858
In his capacity as chairman of the Atchison County Republican Central Committee, John Alexander Martin apparently wrote this draft of a letter to a member of the Democratic opposition, responding…
Medium: Text
Date: December 10, 1856
This “essay,” presumably by John Alexander Martin, was “Read before the ‘Franklin Literary Institute,’ of Brownsville [Pennsylvania], Dec. 10th 1856,” about a year before Martin moved to Kansas Territory. It…
Medium: Text
Date: Around 1858
This hand-written speech appeared to be another by John Alexander Martin, seemingly composed for delivery in the spring and/or early summer of 1858, not long after he took over Atchison’s…
Medium: Text
Date: July, 1859
This eleven-page document is a speech or essay, most likely in John Alexander Martin’s handwriting, delivered in support of the proposed Wyandotte Constitution that was ratified by the voters of…
Medium: Text
Date: October 22, 1859
This letter, written by Leigh R. Webber from Lawrence, Kansas Territory, was addressed to Miss Brown, a daughter of John Stillman Brown. Webber wrote about sickness in the Brown family…
Medium: Text
Date: June 13, 1858
This letter, written from Lawrence, Kansas Territory, by John Stillman Brown, was addressed to his son, William Brown, who was studying at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. The letter…
