[Partially Printed Receipt, Completed in Manuscript, Printed at Redpath's Crusader of Freedom Office in Doniphan County, Kansas]

Doniphan, Ks: Printed at the Crusader of Freedom Office, 1858. Very good.. Single sheet, 3.5 x 7.5 inches. Minor foxing, light edge wear. An uncommon form, printed at James Redpath's Crusader of Freedom office in Doniphan, Kansas. The Scottish-born Redpath originally worked for Horace Greeley's New York Tribune where he published a series of articles compiling Facts of Slavery. In 1855, he moved to the Kansas-Missouri border and reported on the slavery disputes for the Free Soil newspaper, the Missouri Democrat, before starting his own newspaper, the Crusader of Freedom. The motto of his newspaper was "I enroll myself a Crusader of Freedom until slavery ceases to exist."

Redpath met John Brown immediately after the fateful Pottawatomie Creek incident and his interview with the fervent abolitionist was Brown's debut in the press with Redpath labeling him a warrior-saint. The journalist became Brown's most vocal supporter in the press, and his report of the Battle of Osawatomie helped take Brown to national prominence. He became friends with John Brown and one of the fierce abolitionist's largest supporters, writing in Brown's defense after his raid on Harper's Ferry. After Brown's execution, Redpath published a book on Brown, the proceeds from which went to the Brown family. Redpath was also famous for co-authoring a seminal guidebook entitled Hand-Book to Kansas Territory and the Rocky Mountains' Gold Region. He left Kansas shortly after the present work was printed, moving to Boston, where he eventually turned his attentions to encouraging emigration of African Americans to Haiti.

Ostensibly, the present form was created so that local resident W.H. Bayliss could pay his Doniphan County taxes on July 20, 1857. However, it stands as a symbol of the abolitionist spirit in Kansas, which was deeply felt by people such as Redpath and Brown. The form is decorated with an engraving of the personification of Liberty, with the eagle and shield inside an elaborated framing device. We could locate no other copies of this form in OCLC.