Slavery in Kansas City

Slavery in Kansas City. . The border between Missouri and Kansas was once the most contested dividing line in the nation. It was here that abolitionist jayhawkers from Kansas and pro-slavery troops from Missouri fought to preserve their ideals and ways of life. To many slaves in this area, the border meant one thing: freedom. , With the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the United States determined to maintain an equal balance of free and slave states. In 1821, Missouri entered statehood as a slave state while Maine was declared "free." Although many Missourians were decidedly against slavery, the area's rapid growth created a need for "bonded" laborers. For these bondsmen, life was filled with beatings, rape, branding, separation of families, no education and long hours of back-breaking work. , Missouri was bordered by four "free" territories - the most of any other slaveholding state in the nation. Many Missouri slaves escaped to freedom through a system of safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. Legends exist about abolitionist activities in Westport, Weston and Parkville but the most important documented site was the river town of Quindaro, Kansas. Once located less than 2 miles east of this location, Quindaro was the home of many free blacks and serves as a key "station" on the Underground Railroad. Slaves often escaped to Kansas across the Kansas and Missouri rivers in small boats or through secret runs of the Parkville-Quindaro Ferry. The journey to Quindaro was difficult and dangerous as many slaves were captured and returned to their owners by greedy bounty hunters. , After three tumultuous decades, the slavery debate in Missouri came to a head., In 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act declared that the inhabitants of the new Kansas Territory could determine whether it would be a free or slave state. Activists from both sides flocked to the region, intending to influence the vote. Violent political confrontations erupted between the pro-slavery "Border Ruffians" and anti-slavery Free-Staters, leading to the new territory's term of "Bleeding Kansas." After seven years as a "freesoil" territory, Kansas officially became a free state in early 1861, less than three months prior to the start of the Civil War., For the next four years, the battle over slavery created bloody dividing lines not only between the new states but between families. The young nation was nearly destroyed. On January 1, 1865, Abraham Lincoln declared all Confederate slaves free. The Thirteenth Amendment, passed in 1865, made slavery illegal in the United States. , The adjacent Freedom Mall depicts the trials and tribulations of the enumerable slave families from this most turbulent period of America's history. Their story is one of strength, hope, and unwavering courage.