The New York Times, August 2, 1860
Leavenworth, Kansas, Wednesday, July 25, 1860
Our colored population has of late been in almost constant alarm, in consequence of several cases of kidnapping. The unfortunate victims have been seized at night by armed men, and secretly conveyed into Missouri, and there sold to slavetraders going South, or lodged in jail until a favorable opportunity should occur to send them down the river to the Southern market. Within the last week there have been taken from the heart of this—the largest city in the Territory—no less than 3 of these young men. Two of them are now in jail at St. Joseph, Mo.; the other one, no trace has yet been found of his whereabouts; parties of friends have been out searching for him in vain. It is supposed that he was assaulted late in the evening while on his way home, gagged, put into a close vehicle, conveyed over into Missouri, and there secreted until the search for him is suspended, and then he will be shipped down the river.
An attempt was made in Lawrence only a few nights since to kidnap a woman, but she raised the alarm; the people were aroused, the kidnappers escaped, and the town was preserved from the lasting disgrace of having a human being taken from it by force and sold into Slavery.
An Indian was forcibly seized on the Delaware Reserve a few nights since, taken into the timber on the river bottom, there severely beaten, head shaved, and then taken to St. Joseph and imprisoned. The kidnappers suddenly became alarmed and released him; he returned to his home in a very disabled and suffering state, only a day or two since.
These kidnapping cases have become quite frequent of late, and our people take but little interest in them, and the negroes have no protection whatever. The statute for the punishment of such crimes is very severe, but we have no officer to serve the writ; and if brought into court, our Federal judiciary manifest their reverence for Dred Scottism, and refuse to admit negro testimony.
The victims of these infamous kidnapping proceedings are free, and well known in this Territory as the “Arkansas Exiles.” A few years since they were extirpated from that State, and forced to find a habitation elsewhere.
They came to Kansas, and have settled in various potions of our Territory, proving themselves an intelligent and industrious class of people. They were driven out of Arkansas because free; now a band of kidnappers has been organized for the purpose of selling them as slaves. The free papers found upon their persons when captured are of no use, for they are immediately destroyed by the captors, and the negro is whipped into an admission that he is a runaway slave, and with that be upon his lips he is ready for a Southern slave market.
The success of the kidnappers has rendered them very bold in the prosecution of their infamous business. For a long while they confined themselves to the stealing of horses, until the people became aroused, captured and hung a few of them, making the occupation a very dangerous one; they then turned their attention to kidnapping with success.
it is a humiliating confession, but nevertheless true, that a large a majority of the people of Kansas, notwithstanding their early struggles and sufferings, in opposition to the designs of the slave oligarchy, have the negro, and rejoice to see them taken out of the Territory, even into slavery. They are determined to have what they call a Free white State, and are indifferent as to the means used to effect that purpose. The kidnappers are doing their work effectively, and unless the people take more interest in the matter than they have done, they will soon have all the negroes on their way to the South.