This website supports and amplifies the book "Stasey" written by the great-great-grandchildren of Thomas Hart Benton Stasey (1836-1862) of Hannibal, Missouri.
The above picture was probably made in 1859, at the end of THBS's California days. It links to the free iTunes version of the book, a recounting of his gold seeking days, complete with letters he wrote back home from the frontier, and containing a sketch of his Civil War experiences up to his death in 1862.
THBS evidenced no awareness of having been born on the wrong side of history, a slave owner who believed he was defending his Missouri home from interlopers. He was not a hero, but he did some heroic things. He was not a villain, though he did some villanous things. This is his story as best it can be deduced from family memories and contemporary sources. It contains as much of his truth as we can access. It's up to the reader to assess him by whatever measure seems appropriate.
In addition to the iBook version linked above, it may be downloaded or read online as a PDF file. The text can be seen here, and the Appendices here.
The book can also be downloaded from Google Drive. volume 1 is the text and volume 2 contains the appendices.
These are big files since they contain numerous pictures, so they can take a few minutes to download.
Other pages on this site contain additional information, posted from time to time, as it develops.