Transcript Slide 1
James Mason Diary TOPEKA KANSAS May 8, 1850 ?? From Kansas City Diary of James Mason From Kansas City, MO to Topeka, KS Traveling near the Kansas river Topeka, KS May 8 – Passed Uniontowns got some pie & milk Crossed Caw river & encamped 3 miles back got word that the Pottawatimes & the Pawnees was a ware some 16 miles _______ Topeka, KS In the 1840s, wagon trains made their way west from Independence Missouri, on a journey of 2,000 miles (3,000 km), following what would come to be known as the Oregon Trail. About 60 miles (97 km) west of Kansas City, Missouri, three half Kansas Indian sisters married to the French-Canadian Pappan brothers established a ferry service allowing travelers to cross the Kansas River at what is now Topeka. During the 1840s and into the 1850s, travelers could reliably find a way across the river, but little else was in the area. In the early 1850s, traffic along the Oregon Trail was supplemented by trade on a new military road stretching from Fort Leavenworth through Topeka to the newly-established Fort Riley. The issue of slavery had grown since the creation of the United States and by 1850 the threat of civil war was just around the corner. The government in Washington D.C. was left trying to craft a compromise that would satisfy both the North and South, until a more permanent agreement could be established. The Compromise of 1850 included the Fugitive Slave Act, which became largely disputed within the northern free states. The Fugitive Slave Act stipulated that citizens of free states were required to return slaves found in the North. The Act also denied a fugitive’s right to a jury trial. After the Act was passed many African Americans in the North fled to Canada. Not only were slaves recaptured under the Fugitive Slave Act, but without the right to a jury trial, many free men were also sent back to slavery. Topeka, KS The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five bills passed in the United States in September 1850, which defused a four-year confrontation between the slaves states of the South and the free states of the North regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican-American War (1846– 1848). The compromise, drafted by Wig Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky and brokered by Clay and Democrat Stephen Douglas, avoided secession or civil war and reduced sectional conflict for four years. Topeka, KS Compromise of 1850 Topeka, KS Potawatomie Baptist Manual Labor Training School - active 1850-1862 END James Mason Diary TOPEKA KANSAS May 8, 1850 ??