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Genesis Citations

Bushwhackers: During the mid-nineteenth century, much conflict between the Kansas and Missouri border encouraged the development of wandering guerillas. ¹ Two of these groups were the Red Legs and the Bushwhackers. ² These two groups often fought each other. They also worked to undermine the efforts of one another. So while the Red Legs worked with the Underground Railroad to help free slaves, the Bushwhackers terrorized Blacks to discourage them from volunteering for the Civil War. ^{3 , 4}

Missouri Anti-Education Law: With the uprising of slaves in other states, Missouri residents feared that educated free African-Americans would incite the enslaved. ⁵ As a preventive measure to the possibility that slaves in that area may revolt, the Missouri General Assembly passed a law forbidding the education of all Blacks, free or slave: ⁶

List of Citations

2. Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., s.v. "bushwacker."
4. W. L. Webb, The Centennial History of Independence, MO (Independence, MO : By the author, 1927), 171.
6. Ibid., 188.
8. Lorenzo J. Greene, Gary R. Kremer, and Antonio F. Holland, Missouri’s Black Heritage (University of Missouri Press, 1993), 81.
10. Ibid., 62.
12. Ibid., 63.
14. Laws of the State of Missouri, 14th Gen. Ass., 1st Sess. (Jefferson City, 1847), 103. Quoted in Donnie D. Bellamy, "Education of Blacks in Missouri," Journal of Negro History v. 59, no. 2, (April 1974): 150.