https://jeffersonjayhawkers.com/about/
In July 1859 Kansan James B. Abbott collected a force of 10 men to sweep into Missouri and spring Underground Railroad operator John Doy from jail. An early Lawrence, Kansas Territory, settler and dedicated abolitionist, Doy had been convicted of going into Missouri and luring a slave from bondage to seek freedom in the north, action that was illegal both in Missouri and the nation.
Doy, his son, Charles Doy, and a wagon driver, Wilbur Clough, had been trying to move 13 freedom-seekers north on the Underground Railroad in January 1859 when they were ambushed south of Oskaloosa in Jefferson County, Kansas Territory. They were seized and hurried across the Missouri River to the slave state of Missouri. There, John Doy was charged with one of the crimes that slavery laws offered to ensure that the owners of human beings were protected against property (slaves) loss.
A Missouri jury convicted the Kansan on the charge late in June 1859 and Doy was about to be sent off to prison in Jefferson City. Doyโs Kansas Territory supporters organized to resist what they saw as an illegal outrage. The 10 men who pulled off a stunning jail rescue became known as โThe Immortal Ten.โ The story is at https://jeffersonjayhawkers.com/the-immortal-ten-and-the-rescue-of-john-doy/
The photo is from the Kansas State Historical Societyโs Kansas Memory site, Item 220363, and was taken in the summer of 1859. The standing men, The Immortal Ten, from left to right, are identified by the KSHS as Major James B. Abbott, Captain Joshua Pike, Jacob Sinex, Joseph Gardner, Thomas Simmons, S.J. Willis, Charles Doy (plaid shirt), Captain John E. Stewart, Silas Soule and George R. Hay. John Doy is seated in front.
No contest here allowing for the free exercise of the Second Amendment. Equally impressive, “on the way, James Abbott stopped the group in Jefferson County and received food and rest atย the home of theย Rev. Josiah B. McAfeeย at at Grasshopper Falls (Valley Falls). A few miles farther and fearful that Missourians would follow, Abbott called for an armed escort in the form ofย Captain Jesse Newellโs rifle company, which guarded the group on the final leg of the trip, from Oskaloosaย into Lawrence?
The second person from the right in The Immortal Ten picture is Silas Soule. He is worth a second look for his refusal to participate in an army-led massacre of Native Americans at Sand Creek five years after the Doy rescue. http://theconversation.com/remembering-the-us-soldiers-who-refused-orders-to-murder-native-americans-at-sand-creek-68211
Silas Soule, incredible human being. I will visit his grave when I’m in Denver next time and pay tribute to the Sand Creek massacre sight on my way back.