Show First Free State Had 1 Slaves in Early Days Slavery once existed in pioneer Iowa despite the fact that Iowa has been referred to as the first free state in the Louisiana purchase When the first white men settled in Iowa a few brought slaves with them according to the I State Historical Society of Iowa Although the Missouri Compro Compro- Compromise Compromise mise had prohibited slavery north I of Missouri the frontiersmen paid I scant attention to such legal technicalities Thus Isaac R. R Campbell living on the present site of the city of Keokuk in 1834 owned a slave named John who it was said was saving money to buy his freedom Col Stephen W. W Kearny who cameto came cameto cameto to Fort Des Moines near the mouth of the Des Moines in 1834 had a mulatto slave woman as a family servant She left Iowa with the I Kearny family still a slave Dred Scott squatted on Scott county land for his master Dr John Emerson while the latter served as an army surgeon at Fort Armstrong When the Methodists at Dubuque built the first church in Iowa in in 1834 three residents I said to be slaves contributed a total of one dollar to the historic log cabin edifice Josiah Smart pur pur- purchased purchased purchased chased two Missouri female slaves to act as servants at his Indian agency home on the Des Moines The census of 1840 showed free colored persons arid and 16 slaves in the Territory of Iowa |