Existing comment:
Antebellum Home:
White Haven was similar to large neighboring farms that grew grain in the early 1800s. Their owners, who embraced a southern lifestyle and supported slavery, considered their self-sufficient farms to be plantations.
German immigrants arriving in the 1830s and 1840s began changing the area. They wanted small "truck" farms to grow fruits and vegetables for market, and plantation owners, including Colonel Dent, were willing to sell portions of their land to them. The immigrants' use of hired help and family members reflected their free labor and antislavery ideas, contrasting with the views of the area's slave owners.
Colonel Dent, finding no buyer for White Haven, continued to operate his 850acre farm as before.
"The farm... was just a sweet, old-fashioned, 'down South befo' de wah' sort of place where my father was proud to dispense real old-time Southern hospitality. My father had taken many of the notions of the Southern planter to Missouri with him."
-- Emma Dent Casey |