{"id":1671,"date":"2019-07-22T13:53:58","date_gmt":"2019-07-22T13:53:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/?p=1671"},"modified":"2025-12-29T15:02:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T15:02:07","slug":"the-1849-canton-stampede","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/the-1849-canton-stampede\/","title":{"rendered":"The 1849 Canton Stampede"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rljypOdyfxk\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/1849-Canton.pdf\">PRINTABLE NARRATIVE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>DATELINE: CANTON, MISSOURI, NOVEMBER 2, 1849<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1724\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/Screen-Shot-2019-07-24-at-11.05.59-AM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1724\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1724\" src=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/Screen-Shot-2019-07-24-at-11.05.59-AM-300x218.png\" alt=\"November 8, 1849\" width=\"300\" height=\"218\" srcset=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/Screen-Shot-2019-07-24-at-11.05.59-AM-300x218.png 300w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/Screen-Shot-2019-07-24-at-11.05.59-AM-624x454.png 624w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/Screen-Shot-2019-07-24-at-11.05.59-AM.png 701w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1724\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Glasgow, MO Weekly Times, November 8, 1849 (Chronicling America)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cWe came nigh having a general stampede among the negroes in our county last night,\u201d reported a correspondent from Lewis County, Missouri in November 1849. \u201cAbout thirty-five of them banded together and provided themselves with arms, determined to fight their way out of the county.\u201d<a href=\"#_edn1\" name=\"_ednref1\">[<\/a>1]\u00a0 In a story that was full of dramatic intrigue, unexpected violence, wholesale capture and then the tragic break up of several African American families, it is remarkable that this attempted Missouri slave stampede on the eve of the Compromise of 1850 is not better known, nor more frequently taught in American classrooms.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>STAMPEDE CONTEXT<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>At the time, however, the failed escape of nearly three dozen enslaved people outside of Canton, Missouri was a national news story of considerable significance.\u00a0 The initial garbled reports, passed from Quincy, Illinois via the <em>Missouri Daily Republican<\/em>, and which appeared all over the country, claimed as many as fifty armed runaways from \u201cboth sexes.\u201d \u00a0\u201cTHE GREAT SLAVE STAMPEDE IN MISSOURI,\u201d was how the <em>North American and United States Gazette<\/em> in Philadelphia labeled the tragic event.\u00a0 William Lloyd Garrison\u2019s abolitionist journal, <em>The Liberator, <\/em>naturally attempted to evoke even more outrage with its coverage:\u00a0 \u201cAnother Chapter of Southern Atrocities and Horrors,\u201d was its headline for the affair, which the newspaper also explicitly described as an attempted stampede.[2]<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/STAMPEDE-MAP-1849-Canton.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-3336 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/STAMPEDE-MAP-1849-Canton.jpg\" alt=\"stampede map\" width=\"1015\" height=\"598\" srcset=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/STAMPEDE-MAP-1849-Canton.jpg 1015w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/STAMPEDE-MAP-1849-Canton-300x177.jpg 300w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/STAMPEDE-MAP-1849-Canton-768x452.jpg 768w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/STAMPEDE-MAP-1849-Canton-624x368.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1015px) 100vw, 1015px\" \/><\/a><strong>To view an interactive map of this stampede, check out\u00a0our <a href=\"https:\/\/uploads.knightlab.com\/storymapjs\/d95d12106c71570fe28a49f535b3482f\/canton-stampede-of-1849\/index.html\">StorymapJS version<\/a>\u00a0at Knight Lab<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>MAIN NARRATIVE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Canton, Missouri in Lewis County was a small village situated along the northeast corner of the state and bounded by the free state of Iowa to the north and by the Mississippi river and the free shore of Illinois to the east. \u00a0White settlers from Virginia and Kentucky had first begun arriving in this region of Missouri during the 1820s and 1830s, bringing with them dozens of enslaved Africans to help develop the land for agricultural use.[3<a href=\"#_edn3\" name=\"_ednref3\">]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Lewis County was not plantation country. On the eve of the Civil War, only 19 slaveholders held more than ten slaves, and most of those had fewer than 14. In 1850, the county population included 1,206 enslaved people, 15 free blacks, and 5,357 whites.<a href=\"#_edn4\" name=\"_ednref4\">[<\/a>4<a href=\"#_edn4\" name=\"_ednref4\">]<\/a> The county\u2019s largest slaveholder in 1850, Daniel Ligon, a Kentucky emigrant, owned 26 people. Other large slave holders of that era included E. W. Mitchell (17), James Miller (16), Eliza Morris (14), and J. W. Price (10).[5]\u00a0 Manumissions were rare in Lewis County, and those few African Americans who were freed were supposed to receive a court-appointed \u201ctrustee\u201d to oversee their affairs. The first regular slave patrols in the county had begun in 1836, but only for about 24 hours per month.<a href=\"#_edn6\" name=\"_ednref6\">[<\/a>6]<\/p>\n<p>In June 1849, then-US congressman James Green summarized a view of the enslaved black families no doubt shared by most of his Lewis County constituents. \u201cSubordination in a greater or lesser degree becomes inevitable in the very nature of things . . .. [and] has resulted to the black in immense good, and incalculable benefit, both moral and physical.\u201d[7]<\/p>\n<p>Yet events in Canton on Friday, November 2, 1849, barely five months later, called into question this politician\u2019s assumption that slavery was either inevitable or somehow good for the enslaved. The stampede began with a theft.\u00a0 \u201cA little before day on Friday morning last,\u201d a newspaper recounted, \u201ca negro man, belonging to James Miller, came into the house, ostensibly to make a fire. Before going out, Mr. Miller heard him step towards the gun rack, take something, and leave with caution.\u201d<a href=\"#_edn8\" name=\"_ednref8\">[<\/a>8]<\/p>\n<p>John Ramsey, a guest at a nearby farm, also claimed to have heard at least two wagons coming and going about this time, which was \u201cunusual\u201d before daybreak.\u00a0 Ramsey was a cousin of John Newton McCutchan, a local slaveholder, and was soon planning to head out for California as part of that year\u2019s \u201cgold rush.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The black man who had stolen the guns, called \u201cMiller\u2019s John,\u201d was \u201cvery powerful [and] fierce as a grisly bear.\u201d[9<a href=\"#_edn9\" name=\"_ednref9\">]<\/a> An account written almost one hundred years later by W. K. Moore, the grandson of John McCutchan, identified John as one of two principal leaders of the stampede. The other, according to Moore, was Lin, an elderly woman owned by the McCutchans who worked in their kitchen. According to Moore\u2019s recollection, John and Lin had been encouraging her ten-year-old grandson Henry to believe that he was capable of having prophetic visions.\u00a0 One of these visions, according to Moore, was that all of the whites would be killed and sent to heaven, \u201cexcept my mother,\u201d then a small child (the youngest McCutchan daughter), who was to be spared in order to become Henry\u2019s wife.[10<a href=\"#_edn10\" name=\"_ednref10\">]<\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1772\" style=\"width: 260px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nps.gov\/ethnography\/aah\/aaheritage\/ChesapeakeF.htm\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1772\" class=\"wp-image-1772 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/Slave-healer.jpg\" alt=\"conjurer image\" width=\"250\" height=\"179\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1772\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An enslaved conjurer (National Park Service)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>After the theft of the firearms, Dave, an enslaved child owned by the McCutchan&#8217;s, was soon \u201cpressed . . . into telling\u201d the now-panicked slaveholder that African Americans belonging to several neighboring families were first planning to kill the whites in their homes, and then gathering all of the willing blacks in the county, before making an escape to Illinois and then on to Canada. According to Moore\u2019s account, \u201cLin had already served coffee in the kitchen, after mixing it with gunpowder to make them brave and with some of her magic potions that were to render them invulnerable.\u201d[11<a href=\"#_edn11\" name=\"_ednref11\">]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Other farmers had learned of the plot and by daybreak more than 30 armed white men had tracked the freedom seekers to the McCutchan farm. \u201cThe negroes, amounting to between twenty and thirty, . . . had three guns, together with large clubs and butcher knives,\u201d reported a local newspaper.[12] Beside those who had fled from Miller\u2019s farm on the Sugar Creek, the group now included slaves owned by Judge William Ellis of Monticello, as well as Samuel McKim and James McCutchan, also of Sugar Creek north of Monticello.<\/p>\n<p>As the pursuers approached, the escapees presented \u201can obstinate defense . . . [demonstrating] the most dogged and settled hostility, [and] peremptorily refusing to yield.\u201d The flashpoint came when the slaveholders, \u201cafter waiting and reasoning . . . until all patience was exhausted,\u201d began to move toward the slaves.[13] Following a yell, Moore recalled being told that, \u201cLin and John rushed forward.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1757 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/Screenshot-233-300x163.png\" alt=\"Miller's John dies\" width=\"300\" height=\"163\" srcset=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/Screenshot-233-300x163.png 300w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/Screenshot-233-624x338.png 624w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/Screenshot-233.png 627w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/> John was armed with a sharp scythe blade bound to a short wooden handle, and Lin carried a bucket of boiling water, both dangerous weapons at close quarters. Two men raised their rifles and fired simultaneously, and John fell dead. Lin dropped her bucket and ran back to the others.\u201d[14<a href=\"#_edn14\" name=\"_ednref14\">]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Following the death of their male leader, the freedom seekers initially refused to surrender. The <em>Missouri Republican <\/em>claimed that the standoff lasted four hours.[15<a href=\"#_edn15\" name=\"_ednref15\">]<\/a>\u00a0 But then, according to the most detailed newspaper account from Canton, the women \u201cfirst gave up, and implored the men to do so likewise. Before the end of the time the men yielded, gave up their weapons, were bound and brought to Canton.\u201d<a href=\"#_edn16\" name=\"_ednref16\">[<\/a>16]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>AFTERMATH<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>According to Washington K. Moore, the Lewis County slaveholders quickly buried the body of \u201cMiller\u2019s John\u201d in a woods near Sugar Creek, a small tributary west of Canton and several miles from the banks of the Mississippi River.\u00a0 Moore claimed that as a young boy, he and his friends used to view that burial place \u201cwith eerie feelings.\u201d Moore also recalled being fascinated as a child by a place called \u201cLin\u2019s cave,\u201d which was \u201ca little mound back of a truck patch,\u201d near the old McCutchan farm, where the cook Lin had reportedly kept her \u201croots and arbs\u201d along \u201cvarious trinkets\u201d and \u201cmysterious powders\u201d that she had used for her conjuring.[17<a href=\"#_edn17\" name=\"_ednref17\">]<\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3167\" style=\"width: 258px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3167\" class=\"wp-image-3167 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/HD_bentonTH-248x300.jpg\" alt=\"Benton headshot\" width=\"248\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/HD_bentonTH-248x300.jpg 248w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/HD_bentonTH.jpg 485w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 248px) 100vw, 248px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-3167\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The failed Canton slave stampede contributed in its own small way to the nation\u2019s growing sectional tensions over slavery. It certainly occurred in the midst of that antebellum crisis. Just two months before the Canton stampede, the <em>North-East Reporter<\/em> had warned local slaveholders to be on the alert for traveling northern Methodist preachers who might be \u201cabolitionist emissaries . . . prowling wolves\u201d to be driven out. Around the same time, the newspaper also attributed the escape of three slaves in Shelby County to the activities of US Senator Thomas Hart Benton, a free soil Democrat. Benton, according to the newspaper, might \u201cat this very moment be concocting his hellish schemes, and persuading your negroes to leave you.\u201d[18]<\/p>\n<p>In the stampede\u2019s aftermath, the <em>Canton North-East Reporter<\/em> quickly blamed the powerful Missouri senator, a recent convert to the anti-slavery movement. \u201cWhen Benton came to the State last spring [on a speaking tour], all was peace\u2014the negro was happy and contented with his master,\u201d wrote the editors. \u201cThe Negro began to hope\u2014became dissatisfied with his condition\u2014began to plot to change it\u2014and recent events are only some of the bitter fruits.\u201d The <em>North-East Reporter<\/em>, backed by Benton&#8217;s Democratic rival, Congressman James Green, had been suggesting for months that Benton&#8217;s free soil politics were sowing dangerous discontent among Missouri&#8217;s enslaved population. As early as June 1849, the paper reprinted reports from a Jefferson City paper that &#8220;several slaves have been seen in possession of pamphlet copies of the Col&#8217;s [Benton&#8217;s] speech reading and discussing its merits.&#8221; Then in October, the paper warned readers to be on the &#8220;look out for a renewal of the scenes, on a larger scale, which some time ago spread alarm and terror through Lewis, Marion, and the surrounding counties, in North-East Missouri, and threatened with extinction, the whole slave property of the country.&#8221; In the aftermath of the stampede, the <em>North-East Reporter<\/em> reminded readers that Benton had spoke in nearby Monticello on Sunday, October 28, just days before the mass escape. &#8220;We don\u2019t charge that his speech at Monticello was the immediate cause of the difficulty with our negroes,&#8221; the paper concluded. &#8220;But we do charge that his speeches through the State and his agitation of the question have produced it all&#8230;. His speech in Monticello but hatched the plot, which his agitation speeches elsewhere originated.&#8221; [19<a href=\"#_edn19\" name=\"_ednref19\">]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>By contrast, the <em>St. Louis Republican<\/em> chose to focus most of its post-stampede ire on neighboring Illinois:\u00a0 \u201cAlmost every day our slaves are\u00a0induced, by the persuasions of Abolitionists, to abandon comfortable homes, and to entrust themselves to the tender mercies of pretended friends, who are sure to fleece them of all their money before they quit them. We published yesterday a telegraph dispatch from Quincy, Ill., announcing the\u00a0<em>stampede of fifty slaves<\/em>, in one company, from the county of Lewis, and no one will doubt that they were aided in their escape by citizens of Illinois.\u201d<a href=\"#_edn20\" name=\"_ednref20\">[<\/a>20<a href=\"#_edn20\" name=\"_ednref20\">]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Palmyra <em>Weekly Whig <\/em>was even more specific in its accusations, reporting just days after the incident that local residents had first noticed \u201ca very suspicious looking craft\u201d on the river just below Canton on Thursday, November 1st.\u00a0 The newspaper claimed that the ferry boart, marked \u201cU.S. Pounder,\u201d had then quietly moved north of Canton on Friday evening but had since disappeared.[21]\u00a0 The implication was that it had been part of the underground network to help spirit away the enslaved. Moore\u2019s recollected account suggests another darker possibility.\u00a0 His memory placed the small boat on the Mississippi River at Gregory\u2019s Landing, about 14 miles north of Canton for several days before the attempted escape. \u201cIt was generally believed,\u201d he wrote, \u201cthat men from the boat . . . prompted the plot in a cunning scheme to lure the Negroes on board the craft and, instead of freeing them, to ship them south to a slave market.\u201d[22]<\/p>\n<p>The only way to know for sure what was behind the Canton uprising would be to obtain testimony from the enslaved people themselves, but nothing has yet been recovered.\u00a0 Nor do we even know the fate of figures such as Lin, or her grandson Henry.\u00a0 The newspapers reported that the leaders of the revolt were all sold away to the Deep South, but otherwise there was no specific information about the African American families involved.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1762 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/Screen-Shot-2019-07-25-at-10.21.09-AM.png\" alt=\"Timeline\" width=\"1031\" height=\"421\" srcset=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/Screen-Shot-2019-07-25-at-10.21.09-AM.png 1031w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/Screen-Shot-2019-07-25-at-10.21.09-AM-300x123.png 300w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/Screen-Shot-2019-07-25-at-10.21.09-AM-768x314.png 768w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/Screen-Shot-2019-07-25-at-10.21.09-AM-1024x418.png 1024w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/Screen-Shot-2019-07-25-at-10.21.09-AM-624x255.png 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1031px) 100vw, 1031px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There were notable changes to Missouri law and politics, however. In January 1850, Thomas Hart Benton was openly taunted about the episode on the Senate floor during run-up to the Compromise of 1850 debates.\u00a0 Mississippian Henry S. Foote, an ardent pro-slavery southerner, called Benton \u201can indiscreet rhetorician\u201d in the floor debates of January 16, 1850, blasting him for encouraging \u201cthe slave population\u201d of Missouri \u201cin twenties and forties\u201d to \u201cput themselves in full flight for the Father of Waters.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 When Benton then stormed out of the chamber, Senator Foote responded gleefully, \u201cSee, Mr. President, he flies as did those deluded sons of Africa among whom his eloquence is reported to have awakened a regular <em>stampede.<\/em>\u201d[23<a href=\"#_edn23\" name=\"_ednref23\">]<\/a> Historian Diane Mutti-Burke also notes that the events in Canton had an impact on state law.\u00a0 \u201cAcknowledging the potential for collective violence,\u201d she writes, \u201cMissourians enacted laws that made it illegal for slaves to congregate without a white person present, organized neighborhood slave patrols, and vigilantly watched for signs of trouble.\u201d[24<a href=\"#_edn24\" name=\"_ednref24\">]<\/a>\u00a0 By 1853, Missourians had also created an active Anti-Abolition Society. About this same time, Lewis County instituted more aggressive slave patrols.<\/p>\n<p>These and other efforts to deter slave stampedes had mixed results, however. In 1859, there was another Lewis County stampede that received widespread attention, this time a group of eleven freedom seekers from LaGrange.[25<a href=\"#_edn25\" name=\"_ednref25\">]<\/a>\u00a0 Yet the 1860 census listed only six freedom seekers absent from Lewis County. \u00a0In the presidential election of that year, Lewis County voters also sought to sustain their peculiar institution: the Constitutional Union party of John Bell and the Southern Democrats led by John Breckinridge together attracted almost 75% of the vote. The eventual national winner, Abraham Lincoln of the anti-slavery Republican party, received only 48 votes\u20142% of Lewis County\u2019s total.<a href=\"#_edn26\" name=\"_ednref26\">[<\/a>26<a href=\"#_edn26\" name=\"_ednref26\">]<\/a>\u00a0 President Lincoln was still alive in January 1865 when Missouri abolished slavery.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>FURTHER READING<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The best primary sources for the Canton stampede come from contemporaneous newspaper accounts. The most complete report appeared in the Canton\u00a0 <em>North-East Reporter<\/em> (microfilm only) on November 8, 1849 that was reprinted in the William Lloyd Garrison\u2019s <em>The Liberator<\/em> under the headline \u201cAnother Chapter of Southern Atrocities and Horrors\u201d and also in the <em>Anti-Slavery Bugle<\/em> on February 2, 1850. Other newspaper accounts from that fall and winter provide snippets of useful information, such as the names of the slaveholders and the number of freedom seekers. Numerous accounts use the term \u201cstampede\u201d to describe the affair.\u00a0 There was also an important recollected account published in 1958 in the <em>Missouri Historical Review. <\/em>W. K. Moore\u2019s \u201cAn Abortive Slave Uprising,\u201d written 14 years earlier in 1944, offers a particularly vivid account from the slaveholder\u2019s perspective. Moore was the grandson of James Miller, on whose farm the stampede began.\u00a0 It is worth noting, however, that his narrative sometimes draws quite heavily upon the original newspaper account produced by the Canton <em>North-East Reporter.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Secondary sources include a brief mention and useful context from Diane Mutti-Burke\u2019s <em>On Slavery\u2019s Border: Missouri\u2019s Small-Slaveholding Households, 1815-1865 <\/em>(2010) and also an important article by George R. Lee, \u201cSlavery and Emancipation in Lewis County, Missouri,\u201d <em>Missouri Historical Review<\/em> (April 1971), which provides a rich trove of background material on Lewis County. \u00a0Eugene Genovese also quoted from one of the stampede participants (by way of Moore\u2019s posthumous recollection) in his book, <em>From Rebellion to Revolution: Afro-American Slave Revolts in the Making of the Modern World <\/em>(1979).\u00a0 This passage is revealing for students of slave resistance and worth repeating in full here:\u00a0 \u201cSlave revolt leaders in the South had much less to fall back upon during the nineteenth century than their forerunners during the eighteenth or their counterparts in the Americas.\u00a0 They were influenced by conjuring but were normally skeptical of its extreme and politically dangerous forms.\u00a0 And they lived too close to their owners to deceive themselves.\u00a0 As one rebel slave recruit in Missouri explained, \u2018I\u2019ve seen Marse Newton and Marse John Ramsey shoot too often to believe they can\u2019t kill a nigger.\u2019\u201d (p. 48).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>ADDITIONAL IMAGES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 33%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-1671 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/the-1849-canton-stampede\/screen-shot-2019-07-24-at-11-02-06-am\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/Screen-Shot-2019-07-24-at-11.02.06-AM-150x150.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"November 5, 1849\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1722\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-1722'>\n\t\t\t\tSt. Louis, MO Republican, November 5, 1849 (GenealogyBank)\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/the-1849-canton-stampede\/screen-shot-2019-07-24-at-11-00-36-am\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/Screen-Shot-2019-07-24-at-11.00.36-AM-150x150.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"November 6, 1849\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1721\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-1721'>\n\t\t\t\tCleveland, OH Plain Dealer, November 6, 1849 (GenealogyBank)\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/the-1849-canton-stampede\/screen-shot-2019-07-24-at-10-59-23-am\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/Screen-Shot-2019-07-24-at-10.59.23-AM-150x150.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"November 7, 1849\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1720\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-1720'>\n\t\t\t\tPhiladelphia North American, November 7, 1849 (19th Century US Newspapers)\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/the-1849-canton-stampede\/screen-shot-2019-07-24-at-10-53-24-am\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/Screen-Shot-2019-07-24-at-10.53.24-AM-150x150.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"November 15, 1849\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1717\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-1717'>\n\t\t\t\tGlasgow, MO Weekly Times, November 15, 1849 (Chronicling America)\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/the-1849-canton-stampede\/screen-shot-2019-07-24-at-10-53-38-am\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/Screen-Shot-2019-07-24-at-10.53.38-AM-150x150.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"November 15, 1849\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1718\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-1718'>\n\t\t\t\tPalmyra, MO Weekly Whig, November 15, 1849 (Newspapers.com)\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/the-1849-canton-stampede\/screen-shot-2019-07-24-at-10-53-54-am\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/files\/2019\/07\/Screen-Shot-2019-07-24-at-10.53.54-AM-150x150.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"November 22, 1849\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1719\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-1719'>\n\t\t\t\tPhiladelphia North American, November 22, 1849 (19th Century US Newspapers)\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref1\" name=\"_edn1\">[1]<\/a> \u201cThe Lewis County Stampede of Negroes,\u201d (St. Louis) <em>Missouri Daily Republican, <\/em>November 5, 1849.\u00a0 Also reprinted in \u201cNegro Stampede in Lewis County,\u201d <em>Glasgow Weekly Times<\/em>, November 15, 1849.\u00a0 The correspondent to the <em>Republican <\/em>wrote from Tully (adjacent to Canton) in Lewis County <a href=\"https:\/\/stampedes.dickinson.edu\/document\/st-louis-mo-daily-missouri-republican-lewis-county-stampede-negroes-november-5-1849\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[WEB].<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref2\" name=\"_edn2\"><strong>[2<\/strong><\/a> St. Louis <em>Missouri Daily Republican<\/em>, November 5, 1849. \u201cThe Great Slave Stampede in Missouri\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/stampedes.dickinson.edu\/document\/st-louis-mo-daily-missouri-republican-lewis-county-stampede-negroes-november-5-1849\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[WEB], <\/a>Cleveland, OH <em>Plain Dealer, <\/em>November 6, 1849 <a href=\"https:\/\/stampedes.dickinson.edu\/document\/cleveland-oh-plain-dealer-great-slave-stampede-missouri-november-6-1849\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[WEB].<\/a> Chicago <em>Western Citizen, <\/em>November 13, 1849.\u00a0 \u201cSlave Stampede and Resistance \u2013Their Leader Killed,\u201d <em>Baltimore Sun, <\/em>November 7, 1849, [<a href=\"https:\/\/stampedes.dickinson.edu\/document\/baltimore-md-sun-slave-stampede-and-resistance-their-leader-killed-november-7-1849\">WEB<\/a>]. \u201cStampede Near St. Louis,\u201d Plaquemine (LA) <em>Southern Sentinel<\/em>, November 14, 1849 <a href=\"https:\/\/stampedes.dickinson.edu\/document\/plaquemine-la-southern-sentinel-stampede-near-st-louis-november-14-1849\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[WEB].<\/a> \u201cSlave Stampede,\u201d Fayetteville, NC <em>North Carolinian, <\/em>November 17, 1849 <a href=\"https:\/\/stampedes.dickinson.edu\/document\/fayetteville-nc-north-carolinian-slave-stampede-november-17-1849\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[WEB].<\/a>\u201cThe Great Slave Stampede in Missouri,\u201d (Philadelphia) <em>North American and US Gazette, <\/em>November 22, 1849 <a href=\"https:\/\/stampedes.dickinson.edu\/document\/philadelphia-pa-north-american-and-united-states-gazette-great-slave-stampede-missouri\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[WEB].<\/a> \u201cAnother Chapter of Southern Atrocities and Horrors,\u201d <em>The Liberator, <\/em>January 18, 1850 <a href=\"https:\/\/stampedes.dickinson.edu\/document\/boston-ma-liberator-great-slave-stampede-missouri-january-18-1850\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[WEB].<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref3\" name=\"_edn3\">[3]<\/a> George R. Lee, \u201cSlavery and Emancipation in Lewis County, Missouri,\u201d Missouri Historical Review 65, no. 3 (April 1971), p. 295.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref4\" name=\"_edn4\">[4]<\/a> <em>Ibid<\/em>., p. 305.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref5\" name=\"_edn5\">[5]<\/a> <em>Ibid<\/em>., p. 303.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref6\" name=\"_edn6\">[6]<\/a> <em>Ibid<\/em>., pp. 300-301.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref7\" name=\"_edn7\">[7]<\/a> <em>Canton North-East Reporter<\/em>, June 21, 1849. Quoted in Lee, p. 302.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref8\" name=\"_edn8\">[8]<\/a> Canton North-East Reporter, November 8, 1849, quoted in \u201cThe Great Slave Stampede in Missouri,\u201d <em>Anti-Slavery Bugle<\/em>, 2 February 1850<a href=\"https:\/\/stampedes.dickinson.edu\/document\/new-lisbon-oh-anti-slavery-bugle-great-slave-stampede-missouri-february-2-1850\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[WEB].<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref9\" name=\"_edn9\">[9]<\/a> <em>Ibid<\/em>., and W. K. Moore, \u201cAn Abortive Slave Uprising,\u201d in Missouri Historical Review, Vol. 52, Issue 2, January 1958, pp. 123-26. Although not published until 1958, Moore\u2019s account was written in 1944, a year before he died. Aside from his description of Lin and her activities, Moore\u2019s account repeats almost word for word much of the account originally printed in the <em>Canton North-East Reporter<\/em>, November 8, 1849 and which was then reprinted in both <em>The Liberator, <\/em>January 18, 1850 and the <em>Anti-Slavery Bugle, <\/em>February 2, 1850.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref10\" name=\"_edn10\">[10<\/a> Moore.\u00a0 Some of the early newspaper reports also identified \u201cMiss Miller\u201d (Moore\u2019s grandmother) as the legal slaveholder of John.\u00a0 See Concord (NH) Independent Democrat, November 29, 1849 <a href=\"https:\/\/stampedes.dickinson.edu\/document\/concord-nh-independent-democrat-happy-and-contented-slave-stampede-november-29-1849\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[WEB].<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref11\" name=\"_edn11\">[11]<\/a> <em>Ibid.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref12\" name=\"_edn12\">[12]<\/a> <em>Anti-Slavery Bugle.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref13\" name=\"_edn13\">[13]<\/a> <em>Ibid.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref14\" name=\"_edn14\">[14]<\/a> Moore.\u00a0 The contemporary newspaper account identify John\u2019s shooters as Captain J.H. Blair and John Fretwell.\u00a0 See <em>The Liberator, <\/em>January 18, 1850 <a href=\"https:\/\/stampedes.dickinson.edu\/document\/boston-ma-liberator-great-slave-stampede-missouri-january-18-1850\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[WEB].<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref15\" name=\"_edn15\">[15]<\/a> St. Louis <em>Missouri Daily Republican <\/em>quoted in \u201cApprehension of Runaway Negroes,\u201d <em>National Anti-Slavery Standard<\/em>, January 17, 1850.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref16\" name=\"_edn16\">[16]<\/a> <em>Anti-Slavery Bugle.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref17\" name=\"_edn17\">[17]<\/a> Moore<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref18\" name=\"_edn18\">[18]<\/a> Lee, p. 310.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref19\" name=\"_edn19\">[19]<\/a> &#8220;Citizens,&#8221; Canton <em>North-East Reporter<\/em>, June 23, 1849; &#8220;Runaway Negroes,&#8221; Canton <em>North-East<\/em> <em>Reporter<\/em>, October 4, 1849; Canton &#8220;Great Negro stampede!,&#8221; Canton<em> North-East Reporter<\/em>, November 8, 1849.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref20\" name=\"_edn20\">[20]<\/a> Quoted in \u201cThe Peculiar Institution: Apprehension of Runaway Negroes-Conduct of Abolitionists in Illinois,\u201d <em>National Anti-Slavery Standard<\/em>, January 17, 1850.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref21\" name=\"_edn21\">[21]<\/a> \u201cNegro Stampede,\u201d Palmyra <em>Weekly Whig<\/em>, November 8, 1849 <a href=\"https:\/\/stampedes.dickinson.edu\/document\/palmyra-mo-weekly-whig-lewis-county-affair-november-15-1849\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[WEB].<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref22\" name=\"_edn22\">[22]<\/a> Moore.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref23\" name=\"_edn23\">[23]<\/a> Henry Foote quoted in Washington DC <em>National Intelligencer, <\/em>January 19, 1850 <a href=\"https:\/\/stampedes.dickinson.edu\/document\/washington-dc-national-intelligencer-california-deseret-and-new-mexico-january-19-1850\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[WEB].<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref24\" name=\"_edn24\">[24]<\/a> Diane Mutti-Burke, <em>On Slavery\u2019s Border: Missouri\u2019s Small-Slaveholding Households, 1815-1865 <\/em>(Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2010), 186.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref25\" name=\"_edn25\">[25]<\/a> \u201cNegro Stampede,\u201d <em>Glasgow Weekly Times<\/em>, November 17, 1859 <a href=\"https:\/\/stampedes.dickinson.edu\/document\/glasgow-mo-weekly-times-negro-stampede-november-17-1859\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[WEB]<\/a>; \u201cNegro Stampede,\u201d <em>Press and Tribune<\/em> (Chicago, IL), November 17, 1859 <a href=\"https:\/\/stampedes.dickinson.edu\/document\/chicago-il-press-and-tribune-negro-stampede-november-17-1859\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[WEB]<\/a>.\u00a0 \u2018\u201dStampede of Negroes from Lewis,\u201d Louisiana Journal, 7 June 1860; Harriet C. Frazier,\u00a0<em>Runaway and Freed Missouri Slaves and Those Who Helped Them, 1763-1865\u00a0<\/em>(Jefferson, NC: McFarland &amp; Company Inc., 2004),102 <a href=\"https:\/\/stampedes.dickinson.edu\/document\/glasgow-mo-weekly-times-negro-stampede-november-17-1859\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[WEB].<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref26\" name=\"_edn26\">[26]<\/a> Lee, p. 311.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\ufeff\ufeff PRINTABLE NARRATIVE DATELINE: CANTON, MISSOURI, NOVEMBER 2, 1849 &nbsp; \u201cWe came nigh having a general stampede among the negroes in our county last night,\u201d reported a correspondent from Lewis County, Missouri in November 1849. \u201cAbout thirty-five of them banded together and provided themselves with arms, determined to fight their way out of the county.\u201d[1]\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21282],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mo-narratives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1671"}],"version-history":[{"count":47,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4043,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671\/revisions\/4043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}