Jesse Woodson James was born in Clay county, Missouri, near the present day town of Kearny on september 5, 1847. The particular area that Jesse was born in happened to be settled by many people that were originally from the upper south, such as the states of Kentucky and Tennessee. This helped the plot of territory earn its nickname “Little Dixie”. Jesse was born into a family of two other full siblings, his eldest brother, Alexander Franklin James, and a younger sister, Susan Lavenia James. His father, Robert S. James, was a commercial hemp farmer, and baptist pastor who originally lived in Kentucky before coming to Missouri. After Robert James came to Missouri, he did quite well for himself. He acquired six slaves and over one hundred acres of farmland. Robert James eventually made his way to California, to minister to the miners, trying to find their fortune …show more content…
Rueben Samuel. Dr. Samuel moved into the James’s home, and he and Jesse’s mother had four more children and acquired seven slaves to help as farmhands in the tobacco farm they operated. The beginning of the civil war sparked a fire in the James-Samuel family. Missouri was a border state, so it shared elements of both north and south culture. After a series of battles between the conventional confederate and union armies in 1861, the tactic of guerrilla warfare swept through Missouri. It was caused by secessionist “bushwhackers” and local union militia known as “jayhawkers” fighting in small squabbles across the state. Both sides had plenty of reason to hate the other, due to the many atrocities committed by the others. Confederate fighters killed civilian unionists, executed prisoners, and scalped the dead. Union soldiers, however, enforced martial law on civilians with raids of their homes, arrests of innocent people, mass executions, and banishment of confederate sympathizers from the state. Jesse’s family sided with the confederates from the start of the