Jesse James and the Civil War in Missouri

How the Civil War Came to Missouri

How the Civil War Came to Missouri Slavery was not the only cause of the Civil War, but it was one of the main causes. During the eighteenth century more than half a million Africans were brought to America and sold into slavery to work on big farms, called plantations, in the South, ern states. One of the main crops grown on the plantations was cotton. The Southern states were sometimes called "The Cotton Kingdom." Other important plantation crops were tobacco, rice, and sugar. Growing and harvesting plantation crops was hard work and took a large number ofstrong, cheap laborers. That is why plantation owners wanted slaves. The wealth and power of the Southern states were based on slave labor. In the Northern states most of the wealth and power was based on manufacturing, or the making of things. Slave labor was not as important for manufacturing as it was for planta, tion farming, so slavery did not become a part of life in the Northern states. In fact, slavery was not allowed in the North, ern states. By 1819 political power in America was divided between an equal number of Southern slave,owning states, where plan, tation farming was the main way of life, and Northern states, where manufacturing was becoming more important than farming. When settlers formed new territories in the lands west of the Mississippi River, politicians on both sides saw a chance 6 How the Civil War Came to Missouri 7 1),AN AW..tv from die s1libscriber.Jiving lin BOl1ne county, Mo. on Friday the 13tll June; '1 HBB£ NEGROEI1, VIZ DAVE, and JUDY his wife; awl JOHN, their 8on~ Dave is about ~i2.]~al1l of age; hght COICH fer a full blooded n~ is a good iGot and fihGe maker by trade: is also a gOQd farm hand. lie is about 5 feet 10 ·or 11 inChes high, stout made, and quite lIP lartfu), sensible .fellow. Hlld on when·1i' went away-, coat and pantaloons of brown woollen jeans, shirt of homil made flax linen, and a pair qf w~lted shoea. Judy is rather sJender made, ab. ut 28 years f)ld, has a verj tight complexion for a.negrD !had on a dress \made of1tax llnen, stnped wrth'copperas and I blue; is a first rate house servant and seam.. stress, and a good spiriner, and is v~ry full of aft"ectatlon when spoken to: john IS 9 yeara I Old, . ~ry likaly and u'cll grown; is .remarkably I1ght colored for a negro, and IS cross~ eyed. fJ ad on a pair of brDwn jean& panta· 'IDDns, bleached ftax linen shirt, and roo fian- :nel one undet it, and a new straw hat. I I will give the above reward and all reas. onable expenses, ifs.c~red a", where,.out .of the State, so that I .can get diem agam, or ;e50 if taken within the Stai~30 for Dave lalone, and $20 for Judy ~d John, aRd the 'same in propeftiDn out of the'8tater . 'The aDova ..mentioned clothing 'Was all they tODk witIl them ft:Dm bDme~ but it is S'llpp~seq h. had $30 Dr $40 iIi eash with him, SD that he .· may buy aftd exchange their clDthing: I WILLIAM LIENTZ. Beone county, MD. June 17; 1834: 5!-i. 1---- - A newspaper ad offering a reward for runaway slaves from Boone County. (State Historical Society of Missouri) 8 Jesse James and the Civil War in Missouri to get more power. When these new territories started asking to be admitted to the Union as states, the question of whether they would be slave states or free states became important. The first test came in 1819 when the Missouri Territory asked to be admitted to the Union as a state. At that time there were twenty,two states, eleven slave and eleven free. Most of the people who settled the Missouri Territory came from Southern states, and some of these people brought slaves with them. They wanted Missouri admitted as a slave state. But admitting Missouri as a slave state would upset the bal, ance between slave and free states. At the same time Missouri was asking to be admitted as a state, the territory of Maine in the northeast also asked to be admitted as a state. To solve the problem of balancing slave and free states, Congress decided in 1821 to admit Maine...