CRITICAL RACE THEORY: The Civil War PART FOUR

Excerpts From A Novel By Eugene Stovall

Oakland, California August, 2022?

Episode Nine: Lawrence Kansas

Lwrence is the free state capital of Kansas, The mayor of Lawrence, Stoddard Hoyt, is a Quaker from St. Catharines, who migrated to Lawrence, Kansas to defend Indians from whites who were wiping out entire villages and stealing their lands. The Quakers appealed to army at Fort Leavenworth to uphold the Indian treaties and end the genocide, but the army ignored their appeals. The land barons paid the army officers well to assist in the Indian genocide. When the Quakers realized they could not prevent the Indian genocide, they decided to help the small homesteaders who claimed Indian lands, but favored the?admssion of Kansas into the union as a free state. The free state homesteaders made Lawrence their headquarters. On March 30th 1855, voters gathered to elect representatives to a territorial government for Kansas. The Democratic party and vigilance committees from Kansas as well as Missouri used border ruffians and slave catchers tobblock free staters from voting and to seize control of the territorial government.

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Ellen and the other homesteaders are taken back aboard the River Maiden with as much of their belongings and valuables as Davy Atkinson can retrieve. Aboard the paddlewheeler, Louise Collins approaches her aunt.

“Louise! Louise!” Ellen cries out. “What a surprise.”

?“Hello Aunt Ellen,” Louise responds coldly as she pulls away from Ellen’s hug. “Whatever are you doing here out west?”?

“I’m opening a school in Lawrence,” Ellen replies through the tears streamimg down her face. “I am so happy to see you.”

“A school!” Louise responds. “Fiddle dee dee! I do declare, Aunt Ellen, you do the most interesting things.” Ellen does not see the hate flashing in her niece’s eyes. “The last thing I heard was that you were living with a colony of nigger lovers in Canada. I can see why my mamma was so taken with you. You’re so adventurous.”

“Oh, Louise, your poor mother!” Ellen cries. “How I miss her.”

“Yes,” Louise replies. “So do I.”

“Oh, you poor child,” Ellen hugs her niece, again. “I know how terribly you must miss your mother.” Ellen continues chattering about Abby while Louise responds just enough to hide her feelings. “But what are you doing here,” Ellen finally asks.

?“After I graduated from school,” Louise explains. “I wanted to see some of the country. I’m sorta working my way from one place to another.”

“Then why don’t you come to Lawrence with me?” Ellen asks.

“I don’t want to be a bother, Aunt Ellen,” Louise says. “I miss mother so much, I wouldn’t want to be a burden or interfere with your work.”

“You could never interfere or be a burden,” Ellen protests. “I couldn’t think of anything better than for you to join me in Lawrence.”

“Well, if you really want me,” Louise agrees.

“Oh Louise, I’m so happy,” Ellen says.

“… but if I become a burden,” Louise cautions, “let know and I’ll be on the next riverboat to St. Louis.”

?When Ellen and Louise arrive at Lawrence, Stoddard Hoyt and the town council set aside land where Shields Green and Frank Yerby build a schoolhouse as well as two log cabins that serve as living quarters.

Though she does not even bother to be cordial to Ellen, Louise works tirelessly to organize and recruit students. She takes a careful survey of all Lawrence’s townfolk and visits all the free-state homesteaders in the surrounding areas, taking an accurate census of every adult and child. ?

“Louise, you are doing a wonderful job recruiting students,” Ellen remarks after Louise returns from an unusually long absence, “but I’m beginnig to worry about you.”

“Fiddle dee dee!” Louise exclaims. “You needn’t worry about me, I’m just spreading the news that education has come to Lawrence.” Louise is also giving Caleb Cushing an accurate assessment of the free state community in and around Lawrence. She is also catching up with more personal matters with Billy Quantrill. When the school opens,?not only children from as far as ten miles away make the trek to Lawrence’s schoolhouse, but also adults, interested in learning to read and write as well. Louise volunteers to teach an adult learning class that includes political education sessions for a few motivated townsfolk who are sound on the goose.

Frank Yerby paces about nervously, pausing only to occasionally peek out the door at the hundreds of border ruffians and vigilantes swarming past the schoolhouse on their way to Lawrence’s polling place.

“There’s lot of men out there,” Yerby announces to no one in particular. The passing horses pound the ground so hard that the schoolhouse shakes and its walls quiver.

?“This ole schoolhouse ain’t gonna stand up much longer, iffen them riders keep bumpin’ it like they is,” Shields Green says examining the damage to the walls.

“Possibly we’d better head into town,” Yerby suggests.?“If those ruffians attack Lawrence, our only escape will be across the Lawrence river.”

“You niggers are just being silly,” Louise says with the exuberance of youth. “Those men aren’t going to attack this school. They’re here to vote just like every other law-abiding white person in Kansas.”

?But the bumping grows more frequent. Then an explosion sounding like railroad engine crashing through a building reverberates through the school house.

“One of the cabins done fell,” Shields Green shouts. Just sit down and relax,” Louise orders. “You niggers are scared of the least little thing. It’s no wonder you need white people to tell you what to do and a white God to look after you.” “I believe its getting too dangerous to remain here,” Frank Yerby says. “And I believe those riders are deliberately damaging our buildings.”

“Well if you’re so scared,” Louise replies, “why don’t you just take yourself to your cabin.“I done told you,” Shields says, “The cabin done fell!”

“Why are these men here?” Yerby asks. His steady brown eyes penetrate Louise’s pretensions.

“How should I know.” Louise glares at Ellen as if she instead of Yerby had asked the question.

“Look, Missy,” Yerby says. “Your daddy’s half black and his momma, your grandmamma, is all black! The same blood running through Shields is running through you! So you can stop pretending with us. We know who you are.”

“If your darkies are so scared, take them and go.” Louise shouts at her aunt. “I’ll stay right here, thank you.” And with that, tying a great bow of white ribbon which she places in her hair, Louise skips out the schoolhouse door.

Outside, the swirls up dust and dirt the horses send up darken the sky and blot out the sun. The wave after wave of fierce, heavily armed ruffians riding past force Louise back inside as they overrun Lawrence, trampling gardens, crashing fences and toppling cabins and huts. The riders all challenge Lawrence’s residents to react glaring about with pitiless eyes and menacing the town folk with their weapons. These are Knights of the Golden Circle who are to become the backbone of the confederate army. The bumping against the schoolhouse becomes even more frequent. The walls shudder and the dust inside makes those inside subject to fits of choking and coughing. The pungent odor of horse droppings is overwhelming.

“Use your kerchiefs to cover your mouth and nose,” Shields advises.

“I don’t think the schoolhouse is going to hold up,” Yerby shouts to Shields over the din of neighing horses and shouting men.

“Can’t say,” Shields shouts back. “I reckon we gonna find out, that’s for sure. Grab them benches!” he shouts. “We can prop them against the corners of de walls.” The wooden benches add much needed support. “Put your weight against them,” Shields yells to Ellen and Louise who joins the effort realizing that being ‘sound on the goose’ won’t matter if the schoolhouse comes crashing down on her.

Just as it seems that nothing will keep the walls from collapsing, the hoofbeats begin to slow and the bumping against the walls come to a complete stop. After the commotion settles, Louise slips out of the schoolhouse to meet Billy Quantrill on the other side of Lawrence.

“Billy!” Louise squeals, flying into his arms, their lips meeting in a passionate embrace. “You boys sure know how to make an entrance.”

“Vigilance committees have taken over every polling place in the territory,” Quantrill boast. “After today we’re gonna control Kansas and get rid of every nigger-loving free soiler in the territorys.” Quantrill kisses Louise, again. “Our men are voting in companies at every polling place. After they vote, we’re taking all the ballots to LeCompton where we’ll count the votes. Nothing has been left to chance.”

“LeCompton?” Louise asks. “Why not Leavenworth?”

“LeCompton will be the territorial capital where the territorial governor will live.”

A frown clouds Louise’s face. “What if the free soilers do the same thing in another town?”

“Don’t worry,” Quantrill replies retrieving a small cigar from his vest pocket. “We’ve been busy since you’ve joined these nigger lovers heah in Lawrence. The Democrats and vigilance committees control every polling place in Kansas. We’re callin’ the shots!”

And when the election is over and the votes are tallied, the law and order vigilance candidates affiliated with the Democratic Party win every seat in the Kansas territory except one. In its first meeting, the territorial government uses Missouri’s state constitution as its model, but enacts even harsher slave codes. Kansas Democrats impose the death penalty on anyone carrying a slave out of Kansas or helping a slave escape. A person writing anything opposing the right to hold slaves or holding an opinion opposing the right of whites to own slaves would be imprisoned for five years. Thus, under the control of Caleb Cushing, Jefferson Davis and John Quitman, the Kansas territorial government prepares its petition enter the United States as a slave state

Tom Boone surveys the damage to the Ellen’s school house and cabins.

“Look’s bad,” Boone observes.

“We were lucky that Shields was able to brace the walls with school benches before the whole wall collapsed,” Ellen says. The walls of both cabins had buckled. “Oh look!” Ellen cries. “Our vegetable garden was destroyed and Louise went all the way to Kansas City to get seeds.”

?“You’re not alone,” Tom relates. “Not one vegetable plot in the whole town survived. Those vigilantes destroyed as much of Lawrence as they could. The land barons not only plan to vote us out, they plan to starve us out, as well.”

“What news do you have about the election?” Yerby asks.

“Not good,” Boone replies. “The land barons took control and moved the territorial government to LeCompton. Mayor Hoyt is calling a town meeting tonight to discuss the election. Hope to see you there.” With that Tom Boone ??nheads back to town.

?That night free soiler homesteaders from the surrounding area joined with the Lawrence town folks at Mayor Hoyt’s meeting.

“The election was a fraud,” Mayor Hoyt tells the attendees. “There are only 369 registered voters in Lawrence, but LeCompton claims that 1,034 votes were cast.” Stoddard Hoyt looks about the crowded meeting hall. ?“Lecompton is enacting a pro-slavery constitution to make Kansas a slave state.”

“If the big landowners bring in their slaves,” shouts one homesteader,?“they’ll control everything and drive us out of Kansas.”

“That’s right!” others shout.

“What happened to the law that prevents them from bringing their slaves into Kansas?”

“You mean the Missouri Compromise?”

“Yeah, the Missouri Compromise!”

Stoddard Hoyt speak. “The Missouri Compromise was repealed. Now those who control the territorial government can choose slave or free.”

“What are we gonna do about it?” a free soiler shouts.

??“What can we do?” another asks. “The LeCompton government and Governor Reeder support slavery and the ruffians and bushwhackers have the guns.”

“Governor Reeder is no ruffian,” Mayor Hoyt responds. “He promised to order new elections wherever fraud can be proven.”

Cries and shouts rise from the homesteaders and free staters. “He’s a traitor! You can’t trust him! He’s owned by the eastern bankers!??

“I believe the governor will keep his word,” Mayor Hoyt shouts over the angry outbursts. “We’ve already got enough evidence to prove that the election here in Lawrence was fraudulent. And I’m certain that evidence of fraud exists at other polling places as well.”

“Even if there’s another election in Lawrence,” another homesteader shouts, “what’s to prevent the same thing from happening again?”

“ ___ or worse?” someone else shouts.

There is a pause and the assembly begins to settle down. Everyone wants to know what’s next. Finally, one stern-faced homesteader stands up. “I came to Kansas to raise my family on my own land. I want to be free to enjoy all the benefits of this great country. I‘m not running away. I’m staying. I will fight with anyone willing to fight with me!”

The crowd erupts in cheers and commitments to join the fight. Pent-up emotions are released and the free-soilers bind themselves to a pact to see the oncoming struggle to its bloody conclusion. Cheering and clapping each other on their backs, the free-soilers allow indulge in the pure joy of believing that they can defeat the slave owning landowners and the east coast banking establishment. And they vow to keep their land.

Months later at a free state convention held in Topeka, the only free soil homesteader elected to the Kansas territorial legislature announces that he intends to resign.

“The slavers do not represent the free people of Kansas,” he shouts. “I repudiate the LeCompton charter. It degrades democratic government and insults the intelligence of a free?people, everywhere.”

The attendees shout and applaud and agree to repudiate the institution of slavery and the LeCompton constitution. “I move that those here present declare Kansas a free terresentitory,” the free-soiler declares. “And I nominate Dr. Charles Robinson as the first governor of the free state of Kansas.”

The convention breaks out into a thunderous applause. At the rostrum, once the convention settles down having accepted Robinson by acclamation, the new free state governor of Kansas shouts, “Let every man stand in his place, and acquit himself like a man,” Once more the crowd erupts. “Do your duty for a free Kansas!”

Later, Ellen informs Louise of the plan by the homesteaders to repudiate the landowner’s government in LeCompton. “Fiddle-de-dee!” Louise laughs. “Repudiate the government. You can’t repudiate the law!”

“Why not, dear?” Ellen asks.

“Because the law is the law,” Louise sputters. “It must be obeyed.”

“Lawrence is fully determined to repudiate the slaveowners takeover,” Ellen says. “And the homesteaders in other towns intend to repudiate the LeCompton government as well. But you are right, dear, we must not violate the law.”

“You people are confused,” Louise laughs. “How can you not violate the law if you intend to repudiate it?”

“There is nothing they can do to us if we keep as far away from the legal machinery set up by LeCompton as possible.”?

At the same time Mayor Stoddard Hoyt explains the plan to repudiate the LeCompton government to a convocation of Lawrence’s pastors.

“Perhaps it would be wiser to counsel our flocks to leave Kansas, before it is too late,” suggests Reverend Bishop, pastor of the Presbyterian Church.

“If Lawrence is to remain, we have no choice,” Tom Boone who attended the Topeka convention, responds. “The law and order party intends to destroy Lawrence whether we repudiate the LeCompton constitution or not.”

“I agree,” Reverend Cordley of the Episcopal congregation responds. “The consequences of leaving this land to the ruffians and slave owners could end American civilization as we know it.”

“We already bear the guilt for the millions of slaughtered Indians,” Stoddard Hoyt says recalling his earlier failure.

“As well as Africans and Mexicans,” Tom Boone adds.

“So now the plantation owners are turning on free white people,” Reverend Cordley continues. “America’s barbarism must end somewhere. We must end it here in Lawrence We must stay and fight.”

“Who is heading up the repudiation committee?” someone asks.

“I have the very good person in mind,” Mayor Hoyt responds. “We need someone from your group to join Tom and I when we ask her.”

So on that very day the mayor, Tom Boone and Reverend Cordley call upon Lawrence’s school mistress.

“I don’t know if I am able to do what you ask,” Ellen responds.

“But, of course, you can, Auntie,” Louise speaks out. “And, of course, I’ll be here to give you all the help you need.”

Mayor Hoyt beams. “You see, gentlemen, I knew we could rely on these two young ladies.”

“The repudiation commission intends that none of the laws passed by the Kansas territorial legislature impact the way we act,” Ellen tells a town meeting called to announce the organization of Lawrence’s repudiation committee. “We want Lawrence’s citizens to act as if the Kansas territorial government did not exist. No citizen should bring suits to a court, probates to a judge or complaints to a justice of the peace. Lawrence’s repudiation committee, the mayor and town council are here to assist anyone needing help.”

“If our policy of repudiation is to work,” one or the homesteaders shouts out, “we’ve gotta be able to defend ourselves.”

“That’s right,” Louise responds. “We need guns and cannon. And someone needs to organize the men into a militia that can be counted on when the time comes.” Ellen stares nervously first at her niece than at Mayor Hoyt and Tom Boone. Neither objects.

Louise, Tom Boone and a free-soil firebrand, a local homesteader by the name of John Brown, convince Stoddard Hoyt to order weapons, including several hundred Sharp’s rifles and a howitzer cannon, from their New England sponsors. When the repudiation committee is notified that weapons have been shipped, Louise alerts Billy Quantrill. But thanks to General Hitchcock’s agents in Leavenworth, most of the weapons are delivered to Lawrence. So as free soilers and pro-slavery forces begjn to square off against each other, with Ellen and Louise on opposite sides of what will become ‘Bloody Kansas’.?

Episode Ten: War

Claude and Jake appproach Leavenworth’s riverboat landing leading twenty-five manacled and chained Negroes. They plan to make five hundred dollars on each captive they transport by riverboat to the St. Louis and sell in the slave auction. Since leaving Iowa, Jake has continually checks the Negroes’ chains.

“Quit worryin’ over dem niggers,” Claude tells Jake. “They ain’ goin’ nowhere, ‘cept on that der riverboat.”

“I’m not takin’ no chances,” Jake shakes his head. “Them niggers in Albany sho’ whopped us good. I doan’ aim to let that happen agin.”

“It just goes to show,” Claude says, “in this business you gotta stay close to your own kind. The Irish cops caused us grief and let us down.”

“I just can’t believe how dem niggers jumped on us,” Jake repeats.

?“Them nigger lovin’ abolitionists done put the sass in ‘em,” Claude concludes. ?

“I don’t know about that,” Jake says. “But I’ll tell you, times is changin’. Things just ain’t the same when niggers start attackin’ white men like that!”

While the slavers discuss the changing times, one of their captives stares at the timberline just beyond the cluster of Leavenworth’s shanties. Hank is tall, muscular and black and is plotting his escape. If I can make it to dem woods, Hank, I’ll be tastin’ my freedom agin’.

?“Today I’s gonna leave y’all,” Hank whispers to the slave ahead of him. “I’m goin’ back to Iowa, get my family and head nort’ to Canada.”

“Hank, doan you think you should think on it awhile,” the captive to whom he is chained cautions. “Iffe you does git away, they just gonna catch you agin. What with those scars across your back, half your ear gone and those brands they put on yo’ face, you ain’ gonna be hard to miss,”

“You ain’t lying about that,” Hank replies. “Dem white folks done scarred me up something fierce. Don ’t see how my wife can stand to touch me, but she does. And I can’t leave her and the chilun without means to las’ the comin’ winter. I’ve got to git back home.” ?Hank was a blacksmith in Iowa so manacles and shackles are no obstacle to his escape. He only needs find the right opportunity.

Before Claude and Jake kidnapped him, Hank lived on a small plot with his wife and children outside Sioux City after escaping from a South Carolina plantation. Hank blacksmithed for local farmers in the Sioux City area, repairing tools, shoeing horses and mules and making wheels for wagons and buggies. Now with the St. Louis-bound riverboat approaching the docks and the slavers looking forward to a relaxing paddleboat trip to the Missouri slave capital, Hank believes this is the time to make his escape.

In Leavanworth’s docking area, Claude forces his captives to squat down amid bales of cotton, loads of tobacco and crates of every size and description before being loaded and chained down in the bilge area of the riverboat’s engine room. From where he sits, Hank estimates the timberline to be three hundred yards away. As the slave catcher chat, Hank quietly picks the locks on his manacles and shackles.

“Yo sho’ know how da pic locks,” Hank’s companion says watching the shackles drop away, “but are you sho’ you wanna do this?”

“Yep,” Hank replies. “Tonight me and the missus will be heading to Canada where I shudda gone in de first place.”

“But you can’t make no ‘scape durin’ da day,” the Negro warns.

“Mo’ better durin’ da day.” Hank replies, “At night pattyrollers use dogs. Can’t outrun dem dogs. Durin’ the day, once you git away, you can jus’ disappear.”

Hank begins to sneak away. He slips between the crates and cotton bales, creeping low and moving quickly. When only one crate remains between himself and open ground, Hank prepares homself for the three-hundred yard dash to the tree-line and freedom. Rising to his feet and, but keeping as low as possible, Hank half stalks and half trots over the dusty ground covered with foot high brush and prickly weeds. Halfway there! Hank tells himself. Now’s the time to make a run for it, But standing up and making an all-out race for freedomn is a fatal mistake, Hank is spotted. Whites and Negroes all begin shouting, “A nigger’s runnin’! A nigger’s runnin’! Soon pistol shots ring but Hank is out of pistol range. Even a musket ball couldm’t reach him now. Summoning all the energy and speed at his disposal, Hank wills himself the remaining distance to the trees and safety. Almost there! he pants, But then comes the distinctive crack of a Kentucky long rifle and it is the last sound that Hank will ever hear. A fraction of a second later, he feels an explosion in his head and the blue sky fades into blackness, as the fugitive slave’s body tumbles lifeless to the ground and his sightless eyes begin peering at the portals of death.

Yells and shouts fill the air as grizzled frontiersmen race over to where Hank’s body lies with blood trickling from an ugly wound in his head.

“That was the best gol ’darn shot that I ever seen in my ‘hole life!” Jake declares. “Claude Coombes, you done shot half that nigger’s head off from over two hun’ared yards.”

“If that shot went ten yards, it went over three hundred yards,” shouts another onlooker, dressed as a professional gambler. Soon well wishers from all over Leavenworth surround Claude, patting him on the back, declaring that his head shot was the best one Leavenworth has ever seen. Hoisting Claude high upon their shoulders, the revelers deposit him in A.B. MILLER saloon where they celebrate well into the night while the other fugitives remain with the other cargo, chained together, cold and hungrey. The next day, a saloon owner pays to display Hank’s body with a sign reading: This nigger was shot in the head from 300 yards by Claude Coombs, September 11, 1855.

****

“Have you heard about them shooting that nigger in Leavenworth?” Louise asks Ellen. Louise’s eyes flash maliciously. Lawrence’s newspapers, the Herald of Freedom and the Free Stater, with pictures of Hank’s corpse call the shooting an atrocity. “I heard Claude Coombs did the shooting.” Louise stares a Ellen with a knowing look, but Ellen

does not respond. Louise continues. “They say it was just about the best shot anyone did see in these parts. Wasn’t Claude Coombs the one who tried to take you back home?”

Ellen pale as she struggles to maintain her composure as the anguish of the memories associated with Claude Combs and Abby’s murder fills her soul.

“Yes!” Ellen finally acknowledges feeling the crushing impact of a victim’s guilt. “Claude Coombs is the man who kidnapped me. He’s also the man who murdered your mother.”

Louise recoils from the remark as if Ellen slapped her face. “My mother was murdered by a burr-headed, blubber-lipped nigger who was running away from his lawful master.” Louise begins a vile rant without interruption until, exhausted, she ends in a tirade declaring that: “All niggers should be kept in cages.”

?“I can’t believe you are saying these things, Louise.” Ellen says, maintaining her composure. “You blame me for your mother’s death?”

“Why not!” Louise shouts, “Its true!” Louise decides to calm down. Not now, she decides. But soon, very soon! When I let Billy destroy Lawrence and every nigger lover in it, I’m going to personally invite Claude Coombs to come here and take care of you, Auntie!

Ellen turns away from her niece and, leaving the schoolhouse, locks herself inside her cabin, refusing to come out or speak to anyone for the next three days.

****

Shields and Frank worry about Ellen. Yerby bangs at Ellen’s cabin door. But its not just Louise’s accusations and her own guilt that keeps Ellen in her cabin cringing in fear. Knowing that Claude Coombs is only fifty miles away with nothing to prevent him from coming to Lawrence and kidnapping her is terrifying. Yet, cowering in her cabin, buried under her blankets, Ellen’s fears begin to ebb, being replaced with anger and even hate. Ellen wonders why she has allowed someone as foul as Claude Coombs to intimidate her. How dare that hateful man control so much of my life? Ellen shouts to her inner self. And the recognizes Louise’ vileness. She speaks of Negroes as if she and her father were somehow different from that poor soul whose body is on display in Leavenworth. The longer Ellen lays on her cot, the angrier she became. I will not let this destroy me, she decides. With that, she rises and, though light-headed and hungry from her self-imposed incarceration, Ellen wobbles to the door into the light of a new reality.

“Decided to come out?” Yerby smiles. “You must have gotten hungry.”

“I’ve had enough guilt,” Ellen snaps. “Now I want some payback!”

“I’m getting bored with this place,” Louise announces. Its been several weeks since their exchange and Louise notices a change in her aunt, which she reported to Caleb Cushing.?“I think its time for you to visit St. Louis,” Cushing orders.

“Why are you visiting St. Louis?” Ellen asks. “Do you have friends there?”

Louise is no longer confident in her ability to deceive either her aunt or Lawrence’s other free soilers. Of course, she never deceived Frank Yerbv or Shields Green. ?Does she suspect me? Louise wonders Are days playing Caleb’s secret agent coming to an end? “If you must know,” Louise replies, “I have a friend coming from Boston who wants to meet me in St. Louis.”

“From Boston!” Ellen remarks. “Is he someone I know?”

Louise realizes she has made a mistake. No matter! she tells herself. I might as well tell her the truth.?“His name is Caleb Cushing, but I don’t believe you know him.” A week later, Louise boards a river boat that will take her down to Leavenworth and, from there, to St. Louis.

*****

As befitting the Attorney General of the United States, Caleb Cushing booked the entire top floor of the National Hotel, located at Third and Market Streets in downtown St. Louis. The National is within walking distance of numerous slave markets including the largest west of Charleston operated \ by Benard Lynch. Opened in 1832, the National Hotel is the most exclusive hotel in St. Louis and among ?the most elegant hotels in America. Louise has a suite of her own where slaves bring her champagne, draw her bath and massage her body. During their two week stay, in between their other more intimate activities, Louise and Caleb discuss the Democratic Party’s plan for Kansas. Since the attorney general is neither young nor athletic, politics occupied far more of their time than sex.?

“We are strong enough wipe out Lawrence and any other Kansas free state settlement daring to oppose us,” Louise boasts.“So why don’t we?”

“Too much violence against the homesteaders might work against us,” Caleb replies. “Its not as if they’re savag, like Indians, who we can murder at will. They’re white people and Congress might not approve of our indiscriminate killing of whites.”

“How do you intend to get rid of those nigger-loving abolitionists, then?” Louise asks still chafing under her aunt’s accusation that Louise, herself, is a Negro. Louise wants them all dead.

?“The northern states are unlikely to support our petition for Kansas statehood if we kill all the homesteaders from the northern states.” Cushing explains. Lunching in the National’s elegant dining room, Cushing glances across the room and spies General Ethan Allen Hitchcock dining with with two general staff officers from the War Department. Hitchcock returns Cushing’s inqusitive look. Why would the

Attorney General of the United States be dining here in St. Louis with a young woman who looks exactly like Ellen Collins Ingraham? Hitchcock wonders to himself.

Worse luck, Cushing tells himself. I must dispose of Ethan Allen Hitchcock as soon as possible. And?General Hitchcock resolves that he must learn everything possible about Cushing’s young dining partner.

When she returns to Leavenworth Louise is far happier at A.B. MILLER hotel with Billy Quantrill than she was in the luxurious National Hotel with Caleb Cushing. After spending several nights in each others arms. the lovers turn their attention to Lawrence.

“Caleb says that Claude’s shootin’ that nigger has rallied free staters all over Kansas,” Louise tells Billy. “Some of their churches even held memorial services.”

“So what?”

“Caleb’s concerned that as abolitionist sentiment spreads, Lawrence’s ‘repudiation movement’ will alsoi spread.”

“Yeh! We should just go down to Lawrence and kill every nigger-lovong abolitionist we find.” Billy replies. “When’s somebody goin’ to listen to me.”

“Caleb says that we need to wait.”

“Wait for what?”

“Caleb wants a militia formed in Lawrence,” Louise explains. “He’s puttin’ that army deserter, Jim Lane, in charge.”

“Jim Lane!” Billy stares at Louise. He knew that she had been meeting secretly with Jim Lane. “Caleb’s smuggling guns to Jim Lane’s militia.”

“What kind of guns?”

The kind that you’ve got, muskets, rifles and some of those Navy Colts.”

“Are they getting Sharps rifles?” Billy asks. He has always been suspicious of Caleb and Louise plotting.

“No, Billy. No Sharps rifles.” Louise purrs.

But neither Caleb nor Louise knows that Hitchcock has been smuggling Sharps rifles into Lawrence in the false bottoms of shipping crates marked “Books.” Hitchcock also delivered a howitzer cannon to Lawrence but without cannon balls or cannon shot. In fact, Lawrence has little gunpowder or shot for any of their firearms.

“Lane has not organized his militia, yet,” Louise continues. “Can you smuggle some gunpowder and shot into Lawrence.”

“I don’t understand,” Billy says. “You want us to give them gunpowder and ammunition?”

“Well, honey lamb, you can’t just go in and shoot up a whole town that can’t shoot back.”

“Why not?” Quantrill asks. “We just need to get it over with.”

“For one reason,” Louise replies, “Caleb doesn’t want you to. He didn’t go to all the trouble of getting them those rifles and not have them used. And, like I told you many times, you can’t start a war with only one side doing all the shooting.”

“Why not? We kill Indians all the time and they don’t even have guns.”

“Nobody in Washington cares about savages on our land,” Louise replies patiently. “Even free soil homesteaders kill off Indians on land that they intend to take. So if you want to kill nigger-loving abolitionists you’ve got to remember that it takes two sides to start a war, Honey Chile, just like it’ll take Northern votes to bring Kansas into the Union.” Ellen pauses to see if she is having any effect on Billy. “We won’t get their votes if you go into Lawrence, killing and shooting all the free staters and they’re not fighting back.”

“And we want them to fight back because ___?”

Louise sighs with exasperation, but tries again. “We want to blame the repudiation movement for starting an insurrection against the government.”

“If repudiation catches on,” Billy Quantrill argues, “there will be no war and Kansas will be lost. Does Caleb know that?”

“Of course, Caleb has thought about that,” Louise smiles. “He organized the Jayhawkers under Jim Lane, didn’t he?”

“Caleb didn’t organize the Jayhawkers, you did!“ Billy Quantrill says in a voice tinged with jealousy. “You been twisting Lane around your fingers for months.”

?“Whatever it takes to pass a petition through Congress admitting Kansas into the union as a slave state,” Louise smiles. “Whatever it takes.” Louise and Billy forget politics for awhile. Sometime later, Louise reminds Billy. “You will see to it that Lawrence gets the shot and powder it needs so that they?fight back when you attack them, won’t you Honey Lamb?”

But Louise knows how to sooth her lover’s pride. “Caleb didn’t say nothing about letting more nigger-lovers into Lawrence or letting them abolitionists continue getting supplies,” she smiles giving Billy Quantrill a knowing look. Before long Billy breaks into a smile that turns into a yell.

Quantrill loses no time organizing his blockade of Lawrence.

“Nothing and no one is to get in or out,” he tells his men. Vigilantes and ruffians raid homesteads around Lawrence, robbing and murdering any free stater unfortunate enough to fall into their hands. The vigilantes force the wonen to leave the bodies of their dead, unburied as a warning to others. Ruffians are so effective in ambushing supply wagons bound for Lawrence that nothing gets through.

After months of Quantrill’s blockage, the homesteaders experience food shortages. Ellen notices a decline in school attendance. Children are too hungry to come to school. Those students attending school are listless and inattentive. The churches cannot assist their hungry parishioners. Citizens complain to Stoddard Hoyt and the mayor turns to Jim Lane. “We need you to tell a meeting of the town council and repudiation committee,” Mayor Hoyt tells his militia commander, “how you intend to lift the blockage and bring food into Lawrence.”

“The problem is simple,” Lane says. “Food and supplies are not getting through the blockade because the militia is unable to escort the supply trains.”

“Why not?” Tom Boone asks.

“We haven’t ammunition and gunpowder for our weapons,” Lane replies. “If the vigilantes attacked Lawrence, there is not enough ammunition to repel even one charge. And if we attempt to bring in supplies into Lawrence, we’re just inviting an attack.”

“Isn’t there a way to bring in more supplies without resorting to violence?” Mayor Hoyt asks.

“We are not resorting to violence,” Louise shouts. “We are protecting what is ours. Colonel Lane is right. If we want our supplies to reach Lawrence, we need ammunition.”

“What do you suggest, Colonel?” Hoyt asks.

?“Someone must go out and bring gunpowder and ammunition into Lawrence,” Lane replies.

“The roadhouse on the Santa Fe Road is outside the vigilantes’ blockade,” Louise confideds, “Ammunition and gunpowder is available there for a price.”

“Who do you suggest we send for it,” Mayor Hoyt asks.

“The vigilante pickets are far too gallant to molest women,” Louise replies. “My Aunt Ellen and I should be able to bring the powder and ammunition back to Lawrence without any problem.” Turning to Ellen, she asks, “You don’t have any objections do you, Auntie?”

When Ellen and Louise return from the committee meeting, Frank senses that something is wrong;

“Louise and I are going out to the Santa Fe Roadhouse to pick up gunpowder and ammunition for the Lawrence militia,” Ellen informs him.

“Have you lost your mind?” Yerby replies. “No! Don’t tell me. It was Louise’s idea!”?

“Someone has to go,” Ellen replies. “We were chosen.”

“By whom?” Yerby asks.

“If the bushwhackers from Missouri attack Lawrence, our militia will need ammunition and gunpowder to defend us.” Ellen says. “These are the facts”

“How compatible are your Cathar beliefs with getting gunpowder and bullets to kill other humans?” Yerby asks catching Ellen by surprise.

“I know you worry about me, Frank, but don’t. This is something I must do. I owe it to Louise.”

“You don’t owe Louise anything.” Yerby’s tone is calm.

“I owe Louise her mother’s life,” Ellen says.

“Have you considered that Louise may be working with the vigilantes and the Democratic Party?”

“Yes, I have considered it,” Ellen replies without hesitate. “But I don’t believe that it’s possible. Louise has colored blood. She wouldn’t protect those guilty of murdering her own mother. I know she seems confused but Louise is not a monster.”

“Louise is not confused!” Yerby says, his tone sharp and critical. “You’re the one who’s confused. Louise knows exactly what she wants.”

“And what’s that?”

“She wants wants to be white. She wants white people to accept her as white. She wants to behave as if she, like all other white person, can do exactly as she pleases, whenever she pleases to whom she pleases. Louise is a monster, just like the monsters who she serves. Being white is not a racial category; it is a mental disease.”

Tears well up in Ellens eyes and begin to trace lines down her cheeks, “All I have ever done was try to love her,” Ellen tries to explain.

“Love enrages those who hate,” Yerby observes. “Louise doesn’t think the way you do.”

“But I love her!” Ellen sighs. “I am her aunt. Her mother was my sister. I loved Abby so much…”?Tears now flow unbidden as Ellen’s body convulses in great sobs. Her entire insides feel numb as if all her love begins to gush from her heart. Yerby holds her close and says nothing. After awhile, he says, “You may want Louise to forgive you, but forgiveness isn’t in her. And neither can you expect Louise to forgive you, if you can’t forgive yourself.”

Ellen’s eyes widen. “But if anything can reach her, your love can,” he adds, chiding himself for being so tactless.

“Mayor Hoyt and the committee are sending women because they don’t expect the vigilantes to molest them,” Yerby tells Shields Green. “If we ride with them, the chances of their being stopped will increase.”

“On the other hand, they might just think we the white women’s servants,” Shields replies.

“The vigilantes know that there are no slaves in Lawrence,” Yerby says. “No, I think we need to stay away from them but keep them in sight, which means we need horses.“

“Well, dat may be what you think, but I ’tend to be rat in dat wagon with Ms. Ellen all de way to de Santa Fe Roadhouse and back.” Shields’ black face is masked in an icy determination.

[to be continued]

??CopyrightEugeneStovallJune14,2022 all rights reserved