Paul,

You have somewhat clarified the Dred Scott decision, yet muddied it up at the same time. I will leave it to others to dissect your take on it. I wish only to address this statement:

On Dec 15, 2012, at 12:33 PM, Finkelman, Paul <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> First Missouri was a slave state. Period. Its Senators and Congressmen voted with the deep south on most issues; it laws persecuted free blacks (like other slave states) and abolitionists risked mobs or prosecution for opposing slavery.  In 1860 there were 115,000 slaves in Missouri.  Why Mr. Adams would think (in a previous post) Missouri was not a slave state is beyond my comprehension. 

Indeed, Missouri was slave state, and had been since it admittance the Union, as was of course one half of the "Missouri Compromise" in 1820. It did indeed vote to secede from the Union, though its convention voted pro-Union and the legislature and Governor soon fled the capital under General Lyon's union troops. That perhaps is another story. But like it or not, the 13th star in the Confederate flag was for Missouri. But only in a symbolic way. And I digress, except to say Missouri had its own civil war, and had more battles than the entire South combined. It was a very ugly affair.

That aside, I wish to address this part of your statement:

"it laws persecuted free blacks (like other slave states) and abolitionists risked mobs or prosecution for opposing slavery."

Where on earth do you come up with that? "Risked mobs?" What are you smoking?

Mob scenes maybe. But it was the Union army shooting down the pro-Southern "mobs" at the outbreak of the Civil War. Not the other way around.

Please, if you may,  enlighten me on my Missouri history.

Yours,
Craig Kilby
Native Missourian


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