Nebraska Territory had few slaves--13 in 1855. Stephen Nuckolls owned two Virginia women, and Alexander Majors brought six slaves from Kansas City, Missouri. All lived in Nebraska City.
In 1858, Nuckolls's women ran away. He raged, offered $200 reward, and, with a U.S. Marshall's help, searched for them, but Nuckolls never saw them again.
In 1860, all of Majors's slaves disappeared and never returned, even though Major offered $1,000 bounty.
All eight slaves probably escaped via the Underground Railroad, a path used by runaway slaves on their way to safe Canada.
Maybe they hid on the Allen Mayhew farm near Nebraska City. There Mayhew built a cabin and, below it, dug a room reachable only through a tunnel.
Then runaways could cut across the Missouri River and head to Tabor, Iowa, where abolitionists supported another stop on the Underground Railroad.
See a picture of Mayhew's cabin on the back cover of
THIEVES, RASCALS & SORE LOSERS
by Marilyn June Coffey
coming soon.
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