As tension mounted across the country, Eli Thayer of Massachusetts devised a plan to prevent slavery from spreading to Kansas. He believed that if enough anti-slavery supporters settled in the territory, they could gain the vote, and make Kansas a free state. One month before the Kansas-Nebraska Act became law, Thayer and other influential New England businessmen incorporated the New England Emigrant Aid Company. The company secured low-cost transportation for emigrants and provide temporary housing for settlers when they reached Kansas Territory.
Aligning with the free state cause, Isaac Goodnow attended a series of meetings related to Kansas in Providence, Rhode Island in December 1854. At one of these meetings, Isaac heard a speech by Eli Thayer and felt a moral obligation to travel to Kansas in order to help Kansas became a free state.
Learn more about the New England Emigrant Aid Company through the Kansas State Historical Society.
"Believing the the rule of slavery or of Freedom in the nation would be settled on the prairies of Kansas, I felt impelled to throw myself into the scale, on the side of Freedom." |