According to the last census before the Civil War, almost four thousand slaves lived in Jackson County. Western Missouri farmers found that $1,000.00 spent for a 22-year old male slave was a sound investment, for slave labor was very profitable in the corn, tobacco, and hemp fields in the counties near the Missouri River. A few men owned a large number of slaves, but most owners had only two or three bondsmen, usually a family. Slavery in Jackson County resembled slavery in the upper southern states, where the plantation was the exception other than the rule and where the social habits were those of a working farm. One farmer recalled, “The white owner, with his sons, labored in the same fields with the negro, both old and young. The mistress guided the industries in the house of both colors.” Many town families kept a slave to help with heavy household work, while artisans and merchants needed extra help in their shops.

The 1860 census shows that Wornall owned 4 slaves, most likely two men, a woman, and a male child. Family records list them as Jim, George, Allen, and a “negro woman”. After President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, the Wornall slaves stayed on as hired hands for a while.