John Rucker White (c. 1799 – 1872) was a plantation owner, farmer, and interstate slave trader working out of the U.S. state of Missouri in the 25 years prior to the American Civil War.

"[1] According to a 1914 history of slavery in Missouri, "John R. White of Howard County was a wealthy planter of good repute who dealt in slaves.

[3] There is a "John R. White, Slave Record Book (1846–1860)" in the Chinn Collection of the Missouri Historical Society in St. Louis, from which researchers of slavery garner, "For traders in the lower Mississippi River valley, the most significant development was the arrival of steamboats during the 1820s.

— The highest cash price paid for young likely negroes, at 104, Locust-street, between Third and Fourth, adjoining Gerard's stables.

"In 1849, Thomas Selby of Columbia, Missouri, placed a runaway slave ad describing a man named Bill, who had emancipated himself from White's farm (twice).

[17] In between, he placed a runaway slave ad seeking to find a six-foot-tall man called Bob who "had a great impediment in his speech.

[19] In 1855 the papers reported that there had been a cholera outbreak in the vicinity of Columbia, Missouri, and that there were "upwards of thirty cases on the farm of Mr. John R. White four miles east of New Franklin, Howard county — one death, a little negro boy.

"[20] A month later a doctor visiting White's plantation claimed to have detected arsenic in the coffee and other food and concluded that there was a plot to poison the family, a crime laid to a missing slave.

Colored Troops, "Seven of John R. White's slaves—William, Adam, Alfred, Sam, Andy, Preston, and Jacob—all enlisted together at the Fayette [County, Missouri] provost marshal post in the first weeks of January.

[23] In reverse order of appearance in the histories: From 1862 to the close of the war, slave property in the state of Missouri was almost a dead weight to the owner; he could not sell because there were no buyers.

I recall a case where a master was on a note as surety, and had the same, which was a large sum, to pay at maturity, and to do so he was forced to sell a young girl to raise the cash.