Mayhew Cabin
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Mayhew Cabin
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Front (south) of Mayhew Cabin.
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| Location | 2012 4th Corso, Nebraska City, Nebraska |
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| Coordinates | 40°40′24″N 95°52′12.1″W / 40.67333°N 95.870028°WCoordinates: 40°40′24″N 95°52′12.1″W / 40.67333°N 95.870028°W |
| Area | less than 1 acre (0.40 ha) |
| NRHP Reference # | 11000013 |
| Added to NRHP | February 11, 2011 |
Built in 1855, the Mayhew Cabin and Historic Village in Nebraska City, Nebraska is the only Underground Railroad site in Nebraska officially recognized by the National Park Service. It is included among the sites of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.
The Mayhew Cabin, also known as John Brown's Cave, in Nebraska City, Nebraska was built in 1855. In 1854 Allen and Barbara (Kagi) Mayhew moved to Nebraska and built the cabin in 1855. Barbara’s younger brother John Henry Kagi came to stay with the Mayhew's in 1855 and taught Phonography. Kagi, having already earned a law degree, had strong anti-slavery views. By 1856, he had moved to Kansas Territory and became an ally of the famous abolitionist, John Brown.
John Kagi would become John Brown's most trusted advisor and his "Secretary of War." John Brown knew that slavery would not end without bloodshed. Brown had for years been formulating a plan that he was convinced would end slavery forever - a raid on the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. This effort was supposed to arms slaves who would in turn hold an armed uprising against their masters. Once free, they would form a community where they could live peacefully. But, before he move forward with that plan, Brown, Kagi, and the rest of John Brown's followers were dealing with anti-slavery efforts in "Bleeding Kansas." By December 1858, they were at Bain's Fort, having freed an anti-slavery friend from captivity.
At the behest of a slave named Jim Daniels, on December 20, 1858, John Brown and a group of his loyal men, including John Henri Kagi, rode into Vernon County, Missouri from “Bleeding Kansas” with the intention of taking Daniels and other slaves from their masters and taking them all the way to Canada to freedom. When they neared their destination they split into two groups. John Brown’s group set off to free the Daniels family first. Jim Daniels, his pregnant wife, and their two children were owned by the James Lawrence Estate and were at the home of Lawrence’s son-in-law, Harvey Hicklin and his wife. At gunpoint, the Daniels family was taken along with another male slave named Sam Harper.
Brown’s group then went to the home of Isaac Larue and at gunpoint took several slaves consisting of Sam Harper’s mother, little sisters, little brother, and an unrelated male slave. Simultaneously, the group led by John Kagi and Colonel Whipple (Aaron Dwight Stevens) raided the home of David Cruise and took a slave named Jane, with Whipple killing Cruise in the process. The two groups met back up and headed for Kansas Territory with their eleven fugitives. For weeks, the escaping slaves were hidden, receiving aid at various locations in northeast Kansas Territory. Mrs. Daniels gave birth to a son, who was named after John Brown.
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Wikipedia