Working Plantation (left panel)
White Haven was typical of slave plantations in the area during the mid-1800s. As times changed, so did the operation of the farm in terms of labor, equipment and methods. Prior to the Civil War, Colonel Dent's interest was cash crops such as wheat, oats, corn, potatoes, and hay, sold at city markets. Charles, Bob, Willis, William, and Jim, all enslaved men, labored in the fields daily. Free and enslaved help from neighboring farms were hired during peak times of planting and harvesting.
After the war, labor consisted of hired free workers. Ulysses S. Grant's interests focused on producing grasses and clover for his horses instead of cash crops. Both owners grew nectarines, peaches, apples, apricots, and grapes, along with sweet potatoes, carrots, melons, and squash for personal consumption.
150 Years Ago - Emancipation (right panel)
On January 1, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation stating that "all persons held as slaves within any state or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward and forever free..." While giving the enslaved African Americans hope it did not free them on plantations like White Haven in Missouri.
The enslaved here escaped slavery at some point before May 1864.
The state of Missouri abolished slavery on January 11, 1865. The country soon followed with the passage and ratification of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution in December of 1865. It stated that, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States..."
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