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Slavery in Nodaway County

Federal Writers' Project. Underground Railroad Map of the United States, Ca. 1838 to 1860. Map.

Familiar Faces

Slave schedules were used throughout the 19th century as a separate part of the US census to keep track of slaves. This is the slave schedule from Nodaway County, taken in 1860. Do you see any familiar names? Isaac Prather, a prominent Maryvillian, owned the largest number of slaves in the Platte area. His list takes up almost one and a half pages of this census.

Click to enlarge the image to the right and examine the local census.

1860 Slave Schedule 1

1860 Slave Schedule 2

1860 Slave Schedule 1

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The National Archives in Washington DC; Washington DC, USA; Eighth Census of the United States 1860; Series Number: M653; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census; Record Group Number: 29

Small Town vs. Big City

Family farms were the most profitable in Missouri as opposed to the large plantations in the South. St. Louis was filled with enslaved and free African-Americans. Most slaves in St. Louis worked as stevedores and draymen on the riverfront, on riverboats, in the lead and salt mines, and as handymen, janitors, and porters. Many women were maids, nannies, and laundresses. In 1850, the enslaved population in Nodaway County was at 70 people, making up less than two percent of all the slaves in the region. Agriculture dominated this region, and it is likely that most of these enslaved people worked the grain and tobacco fields and with livestock.

Richard and Drucilla Martin, Ages 92 and 102, in Missouri United States, 1936. From the Records of St. Louis’ Courts - Gateway Arch National Park (U.S. National Park Service).

Kansas City

St. Louis

The National Archives in Washington DC; Washington DC, USA; Eighth Census of the United States 1860; Series Number: M653; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census; Record Group Number: 29

In 1862 a woman named Winnie was freed by Jesse Stephenson, see record here.

In 1861, there was a series of court cases when an enslaved woman named Clara became pregnant. Her owner and other local white residents believed she had been raped by John Ware, another local white man. Ware then sued these men for slander. Sadly, what truly happened to Clara is hard to ever know because her voice never appears in the court cases. See the records here, here, and here.

Court Cases & Daily Life

There are few surviving records from enslaved people themselves. Few could read or write, and it was dangerous to record their own feelings. However, census records, slave narratives, and court cases provide an insight into the lives and treatment of enslaved Nodaway Countians. Available digitally at the Missouri State Archives, the court files from Nodaway County show that enslaved people grew small gardens to feed their families, such as Linn, who in 1860 shot at several white men who were stealing melons from his garden. The court ruled in his favor (see records here and here).

There also were white owners, overseers, and administrators who treated enslaved people cruelly before the courts stepped in, sometimes to protect the person being abused but also to "protect" the financial investment of whoever owned that person. In 1849, Simpson (Simon) Holland was sued for failing to provide Milly, George, and Sarah, slaves he had hired from an estate, with sufficient clothing (see records here). In 1852, William Whitsett was taken to court for "cruelly and inhumanely" torturing and abusing a female enslaved woman named Cintha (see records here).

Other times it was the courts who enforced legal rulings that were traumatic for enslaved peoples. In 1859, the Nodaway Circuit Court divided estate of Eliza Byers, who had died in 1850. Notably, this included 11 enslaved people who she had inherited from her father Thomas Stevenson upon his death in 1844. As 16 plaintiffs and defendants fought over their futures, these 11 individuals must have wondered how they would be divided and feared for their unknown futures (see records here).