A publication of Lindenwood University Press Fall 2019/Winter 2020

vol. 11, no. 1

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Fall 2019/Winter 2020 A publication of Lindenwood University Press vol. 11, no. 1

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Mark Abbott, harris stowe state university editor, Jeffrey E. Smith, PhD Steve Belko, missouri humanities council art director, Michael B. Thede pg. 24 Lorri Glover, saint louis university archivist, Paul Huffman pg. Andrew Hurley, university of missouri-st. louis 2 Meredith Marsh, lindenwood university SUBSCRIPTIONS Robert J. Moore, Jr., gateway arch national park Kristine Runberg Smith, lindenwood university ISSN 2150-2633 The Confluence is a nonprofit semi-annual publication of Lindenwood University, St. Charles, Missouri. Andrew Theising, southern illinois university edwardsville All rights reserved. and Lindenwood University Kenneth Winn The Confluence pg. 12 are not responsible for statements of fact or opinion expressed in signed contributions. Requests to reprint any part of ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The Confluence should be sent to Editor, The Confluence, c/0 Lindenwood University, 209 South Kingshighway, St. Charles, An undertaking like The Confluence doesn’t happen without Missouri 63301, or via email to [email protected]. the help of many people, both within Lindenwood University © Lindenwood University 2019 and beyond. We owe particular thanks to Provost Marilyn Abbott and the Board of Trustees at Lindenwood for supporting Manuscripts. Any manuscripts should be sent to Editor, this venture. We’d like to take this opportunity to extend our The Confluence, c/o Lindenwood University, 209 S. gratitude to the following people, institutions, and companies Kingshighway, St. Charles, Missouri 63301, or via e-mail for their contributions to this issue of The Confluence; to [email protected]. Print submissions should be In this issue: we could not have done it without you. double-spaced, but will not be returned. For submission guidelines, citation format, and other particulars, consult 2 12 24 Jaime Bourassa http://www.lindenwood.edu/confluence. “Hang Him Decently “To Preserve the “Whose Blood has Flowed Cristal Campocasso and in Order”: Historic Lore for Which and Mingled with Ours”: Chris Duggan Have you moved? Let us know if you have or will Order, Politics, and St. Louis is Famous”: The Politics of Slavery in Nancy Durbin be changing your address so you don’t miss an issue the 1853 Lynching of The St. Louis Historic Illinois and Missouri in Maria Escadlona of The Confluence. Hiram, a Slave Markers Program the Early Republic The Write Fox, LLC, Tim Fox, Principal Subscription Rates. One year, $20. and the Construction Paul Huffman of Community Illinois State Historical Library Visit us on the web at: Historical Memory Library of Congress http://www.lindenwood.edu/confluence. by zachary dowdle by bryan jack by lawrence celani Missouri History Museum ISBN 978-0-9600179-1-1 New York Public Library Lynching became a visible Starting in the 1930s, the The ideas of Illinois and State Historical Society of Missouri tool for slaveowners City of St. Louis began Missouri as divided over COVER IMAGE to deal with community marking historic sites with slavery mask the fluid regulatory issues, as a collection of signs for nature of support for or Originally McDowell’s Medical College, this became the Zachary Dowdle suggests sites to draw attention opposition to slavery in Gratiot Street Prison for Confederates in 1861. For more, in this article. to community memory. the two states, as Lawrence see “‘To Preserve the Historic Lore for Which St. Louis In this article, Bryan Jack Celani explains in this is Famous’: The St. Louis Historic Markers Program and the investigates these article, the winner of the Construction of Community Historical Memory” by signs and their meaning Morrow Prize presented by in downtown St. Louis. the Missouri Conference Bryan Jack, starting on page 12. on History. (Image: Missouri Historical Society)

The Confluence is a regional studies journal published by Lindenwood University, dedicated to the diversity of ideas and disciplines of a liberal arts university. It is committed to the intersection of history, art and architecture, design, science, social science, and public policy. Its articles are diverse by design. fall ’19/winter ’20

pg. 2 pg. 3 As the sun set on a wooded pasture in southern Boone County, “Hang Him bringing the seriously injuring her. The John Ellis and Walter C. promise of reprieve child, witnessing her mother Maupin to determine who in pain and unsure about might have committed from the oppressive her aunt’s fate, ran toward the attempted rape. Many August heat, the nearest home for help. concerned citizens arrived at Decently Meanwhile, Hubbard, being Edward Young’s land, since 15-year-old Young claimed as property by “very stout and pluck to Nancy Hubbard the backbone successfully several black men. Following zachary traveled home resisted his assaults” with a physical examination of and in dowdle with her sister the assistance of her parasol.1 Young’s enslaved people, Amanda soon returned to the group determined that Mary Jacobs and the scene with a nearby the likely perpetrator was Amanda, Jacobs’ resident, Joseph Armstrong. a man named Hiram. The young daughter. The assailant managed investigators returned to the Order”: Order, to escape just before justices with Hiram to conduct The three had attended the Armstrong’s arrival. their impromptu trial. funeral service of Harrison Hubbard, quite shaken from Upon hearing the evidence Politics, and Jacobs and hoped to make the traumatic experience, and testimony of several it home before the waning “preserved her person from witnesses, Ellis and Maupin light disappeared. Arriving at tarnish, receiving no injury determined that there was a fence, Hubbard dismounted except on the face, throat insufficient evidence to the 1853 2 her horse to remove the bars. and eyes” from the attack. hold Hiram and let the man Jacobs and the young girl return to Young’s property. passed through the barrier While any attack of With the justices preventing Lynching this sort on a young white and waited while Hubbard further action, the collection guided her horse through woman would cause of citizens dispersed, at the gate and replaced the considerable disruption in least momentarily. of Hiram, bars. From a nearby thicket, an agrarian community, the a man, completely nude fact that Hubbard identified except for some leaves stuck her nude assailant as an a Slave in his hair, allegedly seized enslaved man intensified the teenager and dragged the anxiety. As night settled her into the woods. The on the region on August commotion startled Jacobs’ 12, 1853, a large number of horse, which threw her off, black men were taken before an informal hearing held by Justices of the Peace fall ’19/winter ’20

pg. 4 pg. 5 Based on a “proper affidavit made by a brother of the young lady,” Justice Thomas Porter of Columbia issued a warrant for Hiram’s arrest.

As Diane Miller Sommerville manner. By creating the seeming Thomas Porter of Columbia points out in her book, Rape and paradox of an orderly mob, the issued a warrant for Hiram’s Race in the Nineteenth-Century citizens of Boone County arrest. The sheriff, warrant in South, despite the outrage such enacted a compromise solution hand, proceeded to Edward a case would have inspired in that appealed to the sensibilities Young’s property south of a slaveholding community in of Democrats and Whigs—the Columbia to retrieve the suspect the days before the Civil War, former favoring popular justice that same night. Arriving at Southerners tended to allow legal and majoritarian rule with the Young’s farm late in the evening, processes to unfold. Antebellum latter appealing to law, order, and the sheriff was unable to locate lynchings of enslaved people due process—to reinforce the Hiram. Young assured the sheriff were not entirely unheard of, but racial order.6 that he would retrieve the man they were far rarer than those and deliver him to Columbia. that occurred during the late- Concerned about the well-being nineteenth and early twentieth of his investment, Young appealed centuries.3 Since the owners of to the sheriff to ensure Hiram enslaved people had a financial would have a fair trial. Young stake in the prosecution of their delivered on his promise, bringing “property,” an element of class- Hiram to the Columbia jail before based conflict sometimes arose the sun rose Wednesday morning.7 when an enslaved person stood accused of a crime. Slave owners, With the prisoner secure in in an attempt to retain the value the county jail, court officials set of their human investment, would his trial to take place just four hire attorneys to defend the days later on Saturday, August 20. accused, while non-slaveholding In the meantime, Young visited whites opted at times to the office of a Columbia lawyer 4 named James S. Rollins and circumvent formal proceedings. John Ellis lived at a farm As the sectional crisis heated southeast of Columbia, secured his services for the defense Missouri, and was Justice of the of the enslaved man. Rollins was up over the course of the 1850s, Peace from 1844 to 1878. He anxieties in slave societies, was a fairly prominent citizen a 40-year-old attorney who had, in Boone County, including like many others in the region, particularly those situated on as one of the first curators of the border of slave territory, the University of Missouri. been born and educated in the (Image: Historical Atlas of upper south state of Kentucky. manifested in a marked increase Boone County, Missouri, in the number of incidents of 1875, State Historical Society Unlike the majority of lawyers in mob violence on enslaved people.5 of Missouri) the middle of the nineteenth This incident, taking place before century, Rollins had attended the eruption of violence in the Still outraged by the incident school for formal legal training Kansas Territory, at least and taking to heart the words of at Transylvania College in initially conforms more with Justice of the Peace Ellis, who Lexington, Kentucky, in addition Sommerville’s depiction of legal after freeing Hiram that night to reading law with the prominent proceedings for enslaved people stated that he “hoped the matter Missouri lawyer Abiel Leonard. in the antebellum South. Within would not stop here,” a group Rollins had practiced law in a few days, however, public traveled thirteen miles north to Columbia since 1836 when he was deference to the legal process the county’s seat, Columbia, to not serving in political office as a deteriorated into a call for mob push for a continuation of the Whig in the state capital. Rollins justice. Hiram’s story stands legal proceedings. On Tuesday, also laid claim to more than two apart from other documented August 16, the concerned citizens dozen enslaved men, women, The crime of which Hiram was accused was in the southern part of the and children who produced a county, near the Missouri River. (Image: Historical Atlas of Boone County, Missouri, case studies in the community’s got what they wanted. Based on 1875, State Historical Society of Missouri) attempt to ensure the mob a “proper affidavit made by a variety of agricultural goods on conduct itself in an orderly brother of the young lady,” Justice his property on the southern edge of town.8 fall ’19/winter ’20

pg. 6 pg. 7

Defense attorney James S. Rollins (1812-1888) was, like the lawyer across from him in Hiram’s trial, a Kentucky product and strong Unionist. By three o’clock that afternoon, Guitar had only worked his way through around half of his declared witnesses—meaning Hiram’s defense had not yet begun—when a mob “entered the courtroom...”

Rollins was living in this house sketched by George Caleb Bingham the same year as the trial, and a year from serving another term in the Missouri legislature. He served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives during the Civil War. (Images: State Historical Society of Missouri)

On the appointed day, law way through around half of his a group of men pulled the loose enforcement officials brought declared witnesses—meaning end of the rope until Hiram’s Hiram to the courtroom, where a Hiram’s defense had not yet feet left the ground. Within third Justice of the Peace, David begun—when a mob “entered just a matter of moments, the Gordon, would hear the case. the courtroom, in a tumultuous, rope snapped, providing a brief Over the course of the week since menacing manner” and reprieve for the enslaved man. As the incident had occurred, “overcoming the importunities members of the mob worked to excitement in the town and and efforts of the court, sheriff, retie the murderous knot, a party surrounding area had grown to counsel, [etcetera] put a rope of individuals, including Hiram’s a fever pitch. Spectators quickly around the prisoner’s neck and attorney, Rollins, and the filled the courtroom to capacity, forced him into the street.” 10 editors of both of Columbia’s with many more remaining Whig newspapers, William outside the building in Once the mob successfully Switzler and E. Curtis Davis, anticipation of the trial. As one in removed Hiram from the shelter arrived and appealed to the crowd attendance observed, “a portion of the law, they stripped him of his to let the legal processes run their of [the crowd] were much excited clothing and forced him through course. After considerable oratory by the daring atrocity of the the center of town toward a grove effort by Rollins and others crime charged and [had] a firm of trees beyond the bridge that who opposed the lynching, order conviction of the negro’s guilt.” 9 crossed the Flat Branch Creek on prevailed and Hiram was the western edge of Columbia. 11 The county prosecutor, Odon returned to the jail. Kentucky-born Odon Guitar (1825-1908) left Boone County twice Guitar, who had earned a degree In the excitement, a number of in the decade or so before prosecuting the case against bloodthirsty citizens tied Hiram Traumatized by his recent Hiram, once to serve in the Mexican War (so that his degree from from the University of Missouri the University of Missouri was granted in absentia, the first and then studied law under the to the trunk of a tree with the idea brush with a violent mob that first one granted) and again to try to strike a fortune in the California of burning him alive. Some in the wanted to brutally burn him but Gold Rush. In the Civil War, he served in the Union Army despite presiding judge, began to present being a slaveholder. His home, pictured here from the 1875 the state’s case by calling crowd protested to this gruesome changed course and decided to try Historical Atlas of Boone County, Missouri, speaks to his financial success. (Images: Missouri State Historical Society) numerous witnesses to the stand. mode of punishment, opting to hang him instead, Hiram spent By three o’clock that afternoon, instead to hang the accused man. Sunday in jail, ruminating on the Guitar had only worked his Throwing the rope over a past week’s events and waiting to conveniently located tree branch, fall ’19/winter ’20

pg. 8 pg. 9 Hiram had confessed. However, the confession came only after a religious authority figure explained...his death was just a matter of time.

see what kind of horror the next a more lethal resolution. Local Hiram. Sheriff Douglass warned day in court would bring. While planter Eli Bass, considered by the group of men that they were he sat in his cell, a “minister of contemporaries to be one of breaking the law and called for William Switzler (1819-1906) originally the Gospel” visited Hiram and Boone County’s “most respectable assistance from the crowd in the studied law under fellow Whig James Rollins before becoming a explained to the prisoner that the men,” addressed the crowd and street. No one answered, and journalist, including his stint with the angry people of Columbia “would announced, “I have been a week Douglass, fearing for his life, left Weekly Missourian. Later in life he was appointed Chief of the Bureau of not permit him to live but a few about this thing and I now want the jail so the committee could Statistics. (Image: Missouri State 15 Historical Society) hours.” With the extreme anxiety to bring it to a close.” Bass called do its work. The dozen men of the past day’s events combined for the assembled group to form forced open the two prison doors with the minister’s stark prediction, an orderly line so they could that protected the prisoner and Hiram made a full confession conduct their business. After dragged Hiram into the street. to the attempted rape and even settling in, the crowd appointed Placing the accused in the cart named other enslaved men whom Bass the chairman of the mob. along with his coffin, the committee, he suggested had plans to commit “followed by a large number of similar acts on young white women Odon Guitar, the prosecuting persons, quietly proceeded” to a in the area. In return for the attorney, along with Samuel grove of trees northwest of town information, Hiram pleaded with Young, who had been assisting to hang and bury Hiram.18 the man of the cloth to ensure he Rollins with Hiram’s defense, would have a few days to make presented to the mob the alleged Two factors contributed to the preparations before his execution. victim’s father’s desire that the circumstances that allowed for a News of the confession reached enslaved man be hanged rather successful mob action the second Sheriff Douglass warned the court Monday morning, than burned. Guitar added, “if it time, both of which supported and Judge Gordon decided to was their determination to hang a narrative that the lynching was move forward with the trial with him, to go about it coolly and do “orderly” and “just.” First, in the the group of men that they the prisoner secured in jail for it decently and in order, and not time between the failed attempt 16 his well-being.12 as demons.” With both sides and the successful murder, were breaking the law and expressing a unified call for Hiram had confessed. However, For the second time in just hanging, Bass initiated a vote. The the confession came only after called for assistance from three days, a “crowd of several majority of those voting agreed a religious authority figure hundred persons” gathered to hanging, with around a half explained to Hiram that his death the crowd in the street. outside of the Boone County a dozen opting for incineration. was just a matter of time. Sensing Courthouse. Understanding that With the method of lynching the urgency of his impending No one answered... Hiram had made a full confession, decided upon, the mob, under demise, the prisoner believed Hiram was taken from imprisonment at albeit under severe duress, a the direction of Bass, established that a confession would produce the Boone County Courthouse, pictured number of people began to call a committee to carry out the enough public sympathy to here, for his “orderly” hanging. (Image: 17 Missouri State Historical Society) for another attempt at summary “orderly” execution. A man allow him sufficient time to say justice. They believed, as did named George N. King, assigned goodbye to his family and friends. many white Americans in the to head the committee, selected Unfortunately for Hiram, the antebellum South, that legal nine other men to assist in the confession only motivated the punishments available to committee’s tasks. First, they set mob. William Switzler, editor enslaved men like Hiram were out to procure the requisite tools of the Weekly Missourian, one of not sufficient.13 Missouri criminal for the grisly job—a cart to Columbia’s Whig newspapers, code indicated that any white transport the accused, a coffin expressed relief that Hiram’s full man who attempted to rape a to bury him, and of course a rope confession of guilt “reliev[ed] woman would serve up to seven to hang him. At the assigned all doubts on that subject.” He years in prison; however, if an time—the mob had agreed to further editorialized that “all enslaved man attempted the same proceed with the lynching at noon now concede” that the men who crime, he would face castration.14 that day—the committee of ten, protected the prisoner during the For the enraged crowd, castration along with Bass and Jefferson first attempt “were most wise and was not enough. They needed Garth, entered the jail to retrieve salutary, and all appear gratified fall ’19/winter ’20

pg. 10 pg. 11

at the result.” 19 For Switzler, man. In two circumstances, Bibliography ENDNOTES Hiram’s confession provided according to Woodson, the 1 9 15 sufficient justification to proceed lynching could have taken place Primary Sources Columbia Weekly Statesman, August Columbia Weekly Statesman, August Switzler, History of Boone County, 373; 19, 1853; Columbia Weekly Missouri 26, 1853; Columbia Weekly Missouri Allen to Gano, August 11, 1853; Woodson, with the extralegal action. without being an affront to the James Sidney Rollins papers, State Sentinel, August 25, 1853; Switzler, Sentinel, August 25, 1853. “To the Public.” legal system. First, the offended Historical Society of Missouri History of Boone County, 371; Thomas 10 16 The second factor that made family could have sought out the (SHSM). M. Allen to John Gano, August 11, 1853. Woodward, “To the Public”; Columbia Columbia Weekly Missourian, The letter written by Allen to Gano is Weekly Statesman, August 26, 1853. August 26, 1853. mob violence more palatable for perpetrator and killed him John Gano papers, SHSM. dated before the incident took place. One of the three contemporary accounts adherents of both political parties immediately without involving Allen worked as a traveling minister, includes as a part of the story that 17 Ibid. was the manner in which it was the law. Because they went to the with the bulk of this letter describing his Rollins cut the rope in the courtroom. Newspapers 18 conducted. Switzler’s tone shifted Justice of the Peace seeking a experiences in the countryside. Based Two were written by close friends of the Switzler, History of Boone County, Columbia Weekly Statesman on the dates included in his account, attorney. Warren Woodson’s account, 373–74; Columbia Weekly Missourian, significantly when discussing legal remedy, the victim’s family the actual date that he wrote this letter which includes the rope-cutting, is by August 26, 1853; Woodson, “To the two incidents. With the first, and the community needed to Columbia Weekly Missouri Sentinel to Gano was likely September 11, 1853. far more emotionally charged than the Public”; Switzler’s history identifies he emphasized the chaos and allow that process to proceed Allen’s account of the incident came the account printed in the newspaper the location of the lynching as the lawlessness of the attempted Secondary Sources secondhand since he was not home by William Switzler, which claims to pasture of Mrs. Dr. Arnold, which was without interruption. The second when it took place, but as a resident “publish the facts attending the whole immediately west of R. H. Clinkscales’s killing. In fact, Switzler worked circumstance was to let the Berg, Manfred. Popular Justice: A of the neighborhood he knew Nancy proceeding.” Interestingly, Switzler, property. Looking at a contemporary with Rollins (who was also a Whig trial run its course, but after its History of Lynching in America (New Hubbard and the others involved. in his History of Boone County, (to the writing of Switzler’s history) plat politician) to prevent the mob York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015). reproduced nearly verbatim the original map of Columbia (from 1875), Arnold’s conclusion and the distribution 2 Warren Woodson, “To the Public,” newspaper account but included property corresponds to a four-block from lynching Hiram on Saturday. of legally administered justice, Bowman, Frank. “Stories of Crimes, August 1853, Rollins Papers, SHSMO. Woodson’s assertion about the area in modern Columbia bounded by In writing about the successful the family and community could Trials, and Appeals in Civil War Era rope-cutting. The third account, Sexton to the north, Worley to the killing, Switzler stressed the 3 Summerville, Rape and Race in the published in the Columbia Weekly south, Mary Street to the west, and take up the matter. Woodson’s Missouri.” Marquette Law Review 93, “order” and “decency” of the Nineteenth-Century South, 4–5. Missouri Sentinel, also omits the Providence to the east. position did not appear to be no. 2 (January 1, 2009): 349–77. rope-cutting detail. crowd. Prosecutor Odon Guitar’s popular. Only one man signed on 4 Ibid, 5–6; Bowman, “Appeals in Civil 19 Columbia Weekly Missourian, August Dyer, Thomas G. “A Most 11 (Whig politician as well) language in support to his public letter— War Missouri,” 351. Woodson, “To the Public”; Columbia 26, 1853. It is important to note that started the plea for order, and Unexampled Exhibition of Madness Weekly Statesman, August 26, 1853. Switzler stood next to James Rollins the defense attorney Rollins— 5 and Brutality: Judge Lynch in Saline Thomas G. Dyer argues that a series to prevent the hanging of Hiram on Switzler repeated the phrase again and the letter was never published of four lynchings within a week’s time 12 Woodson, “To the Public”; Columbia Saturday night. There is no indication in County, Missouri, 1859.” In Under as well as stressing the “order” in the newspaper.22 in Saline County, Missouri, resulted from Weekly Statesman, August 26, 1853; any of the sources that any resistance of the proceedings and the mob’s Sentence of Death: Lynching in residents’ anxiety and insecurity in the Bowman points out that even in took place on Monday. the South, edited by W. Fitzhugh region based in part on their proximity to antebellum Missouri a forced confession quiet procession. Thomas M. Boone was one of the few 20 Brundage (Chapel Hill: University the violent Kansas border. See Dyer, “A made by an enslaved person was not Columbia Weekly Missourian, August Allen, another Whig partisan counties in Missouri to have a Most Unexampled Exhibition of Madness admissible in court. One wonders, 26, 1853; Allen to Gano, August 11, 1853. and minister, suggested that “all majority of Whig citizens. The of North Carolina Press, 1997). and Brutality: Judge Lynch in Saline however, if the psychological pressure of County, Missouri, 1859.” the attempted lynching and words of the 21 Columbia Weekly Missouri Sentinel, was peace and tranquility” with county’s Whig partisans took no Howe, Daniel Walker. What Hath minister would be construed as forced August 25, 1853, emphasis in the original. the lynching, and though he was issue with the institution of slavery. God Wrought: The Transformation of 6 For the use of mob violence in in the nineteenth century. See Bowman, “opposed to mobocracy,” this case They saw Hiram as any other America, 1815–1848 (Oxford: Oxford antebellum America see Daniel Walker “Appeals in Civil War Missouri.” 22 Woodson, “To the Public.” suited him sufficiently.20 E. Curtis white citizen in a slaveholding University Press, 2009). Howe, What Hath God Wrought, 430–39; Adam I. P. Smith’s chapter on the Astor 13 Dyer, in “Judge Lynch in Saline County,” Davis, editor of Columbia’s society, as the property of another Smith, Adam I. P. The Stormy Present: Place Riot delineates the difference points out that one of the public defend- other Whig newspaper, the man. Many Whigs, however, in partisan perspectives on mob ers of the mob action in his case study Conservatism and the Problem of , regretted did look to the institutions of violence; see Smith, The Stormy argued that the criminal law for enslaved Missouri Weekly Sentinel Slavery in Northern Politics, 1846– that the “supremacy of the law” government to impart order on Present: Conservatives and the Problem people was weak and not based on 1865 (Chapel Hill: University of of Slavery in Northern Politics, white public sentiment. See pp. 93–94. had not prevailed but remarked society. At the core of this admiration North Carolina Press, 2017). 1846–1865, 23–42. that lynching had taken place of institutional order was the 14 Laws of the State of Missouri: Revised 7 “with nearly as much order legal system. In a situation Sommerville, Diane Miller. Rape and Woodson, “To the Public”; Switzler, and Digested by Authority of the General Race in the Nineteenth-Century South History of Boone County, 372; Columbia Assembly Volume 1 (St. Louis: E. Charless, as usually attend[ed] legalized where questions of law and order Weekly Statesman, August 19, 1853; 1825), 283, 313. Summerville argues that executions of criminals.”21 came into conflict with the (Chapel Hill: University of North Columbia Weekly Missouri Sentinel, castration of enslaved offenders, either perpetuation of racial control Carolina Press, 2005). August 25, 1853. for rape or attempted rape, allowed state Not everyone in Columbia and colonial governments to deter slave within a slave society, the illusion Switzler, William. History of Boone 8 James Madison Woods, Jr., “James crime while also saving the state money supported the “orderly” and “decent” of the former could help secure County, Missouri: Written and Comp. Sidney Rollins of Missouri: A Political since in many jurisdictions the slave’s mob violence. Judge Warren the latter. By creating a form from the Most Authentic Official and Biography” (Ph.D. diss., Stanford owner would be compensated for University, 1951), 5–13; John Vollmer his financial loss. Missouri never adopted Woodson penned a scathing letter of “mobocracy” that seemed to Private Sources; Including a History expressing his opposition to the Mering, “Political Transition of James S. compensation legislation, however, adhere to the tenets of order and of Its Townships, Towns, and Villages Rollins,” Missouri Historical Review 53, making it more important for slave events surrounding Hiram’s death. peacefulness, all of the citizens (St. Louis: Western Historical no. 3 (1959): 217; 1860 Boone County, owners to provide the best legal defense Woodson could not see past the of Boone County got what they Company, 1882). Missouri, Slave Schedule, 47; Bowman, they could to prevent losses. mob’s blatant disregard for legal “Appeals in Civil War Missouri,” 351. truly wanted, a confirmation processes. That said, he took no of white supremacy. issue with murdering the enslaved fall ’19/winter ’20

pg. 12 pg. 13

An article about Anthony Faust (1836-1906) in the Post-Dispatch in 1876 said “his name is synonymous with shell-fish,” and this restaurant was the reason. German-born Faust came to the United States in 1853 and St. Louis soon thereafter. He was “To Preserve the Historic Lore for Which wounded in the spring of 1861 while watching militia march through the streets when a soldier’s gun accidentally discharged. He took up bartending, and opened his upscale restaurant, Faust’s Oyster House and Restaurant, in 1870 at Broadway and Elm next to the tony Southern Hotel. By the 1880s, when these images were taken, it ranked among the most stylish dining establishments St. Louis is Famous”: The St. Louis Historic in St. Louis, making it an historic site deserving one of Orville Spreen’s signs in the late 1930s. (Images: Missouri Historical Society) Markers Program and the Construction of Community Historical Memory by bryan jack

person walking around St. Louis, Missouri, in 1944 would the sidewalk and placed on the building at the historic site (or as close as possible to the original site), have encountered more than 200 markers documenting the markers were designed to educate the general public about the importance of St. Louis’ past, “proving St. Louis’ outstanding qualifications as a center of historic attraction.” 3 various sites related to the city’s history. Of that number, 126 were A erected by the Historic Sites Committee of the Young Men’s Division of the Chamber of Commerce, which The era most represented in the sites was the early national period, and the sites’ historic significance for over a decade had been conducting a historic markers program. 1 Depending on the site’s purported was heavily weighted toward industry and commerce, architectural importance, or individuals of local or importance, and also the marker sponsor’s willingness to pay, four types of markers were used—18'' x 24'' national prominence. In “Capitalizing the Rich Traditions of St. Louis,” the committee argued “in the metal or wood shields with a white background and black text were the most common, 24'' x 36'' bronze Establishment of the Nation Period St. Louis is the equal to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, markers were a step above, and, after 1938, many sites were represented by photographic or painted scenes. St. Augustine, etc. in the Founding of the Nation Period. They have made much of their historic possessions 4 The sponsors of the markers were either the business occupying the site, a family member of the person and St. Louis is showing ever increasing indications of doing likewise.” Examples of what viewers would see being commemorated, or other interested parties.2 Generally erected at eye-level for a person walking on include signs marking the sites of the International Fur Exchange; the Alex Bellissime Tavern (described as fall ’19/winter ’20

pg. 14 pg. 15

Lynch’s slave market was the largest of its kind in St. Louis during the 1850s, despite a shrinking population of both free and enslaved African Americans. (Image: J. Orville Spreen Papers, Collection S0486, State Historical Society of Missouri Collection)

Trained as a lawyer, Louis Benoist (1803-1867) made much of his money in St. Louis with a branch office in New Orleans. His home was at the northwest corner of 8th and Pine streets in downtown St. Louis. This daguerreotype by Thomas Easterly dates from the 1850s. (Image: Missouri Historical Society)

The St. Louis Court House (now the Old Court House) was still incomplete when Dred Scott filed his case here. By the time the Photographer St. Louis Star Times Thomas Easterly took this photo in took this 1933, Chris Von der daguerreotype Ahe’s saloon at of it, under St. Louis Avenue construction but and Grand was past in use, in the 1850s. its prime. But it was (Image: Missouri owned by Von der Historical Society) Ahe (1851-1913) when he owned the St. Louis Brown Stockings starting in the 1880s. The Star Times called it “the cradle of St. Louis baseball.” (Image: Missouri Historical Society)

“a favorite with French boatmen Photographic markers included Historic Sites Committee, the its view of St. Louis history. This Charles Daniel Drake home. The “Victim of British-Indian attack,” . . . Bellissime one of Gen. Lafayette’s such scenes as View of Chris Von “List of Historic Sites in and article will make extensive use last site describes Drake as “a lawyer Native American history is not soldiers in Revolutionary Der Ahe’s Building, the “Cradle of Around St. Louis.” This booklet the annual reports of the Historic and statesman. Active in Missouri represented in the markers. War”); the birthplace of Francis St. Louis Professional Baseball”; was distributed to 500 civic Sites Committee to examine State Constitutional Convention Women’s accomplishments and Guittar, “the founder of Co. a View of Louis A. Benoist organizations and individuals in its work and how members of 1865 which passed ordinance of presence are also virtually Bluffs, Iowa”; the William C. Mansion, as “Benoist was a an attempt to raise interest in commemorated St. Louis history. immediate emancipation. Missouri non-existent, except as they relate Carr house, which was the “First leading banker and financier of St. Louis’ past. In noting the thus first slave state to emancipate to men: the site of Madame exclusive brick dwelling in St. the southwest”; and a View publicity that they had attained, Of the sites marked by the her slaves before adoption of 13th Chouteau home, “Mother of Louis”; the Hawken Gun Shop, of Tony Faust’s “World Famous the committee stated they had Historic Sites Committee, only Amendment to U.S. Constitution.”8 Auguste Choteau, co-founder of producer of the “favorite arms Restaurant Buildings.”6 “awakened the citizens of St. Louis four explicitly reference African Additionally, a marker St. Louis,” and the site of the of western frontiersmen”; to an appreciation of its historic American history—the site commemorated Elijah P. Lovejoy’s Grant-Dent House, “Julia T. the marriage place of General The markers placed by the importance.”7 But whose history of Lynch Slave Pens and Prison newspaper, “Martyr to Freedom Dent and U. S. Grant, the great Winfield Scott Hancock; and the Historic Sites Committee as was deemed important, and whose (which was also a Civil War of People, Speech, and the Press.” Civil War general and 18th Glasgow House, where “John well as those placed by other stories were valuable enough prison for Confederate prisoners), Besides marking sites such as “Indian President of the U.S. married here, J. Audubon, famous artist- organizations were all included to mark, tell us a great deal about two sites where Dred Scott trials Traders,” “Indian Agents,” and August 22, 1848.”9 naturalist was a guest in 1843.”5 in a booklet published by the the work of the committee and occurred, and the site of the fall ’19/winter ’20

pg. 16 pg. 17

In 1910, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted Spreen as a “Boy Aviator” who had built model airplanes; eight years later, Spreen obtained a patent for a “Shoe fastener.”

Organized, researched, selected, documenting their work, their The person most responsible and erected by the Historic selections and omissions also for the work of the Historic Sites Sites Committee, these markers reveal their biases, and what Committee historic markers were an effort to boost St. Louis and whose history was deemed program was J. Orville Spreen, an tourism and help St. Louis claim worthy of commemoration. employee of the Wabash Railroad. its place as a great American city. Born in 1897 in St. Louis, Spreen The Historic Sites Committee St. Louis is a unique place; began working as an office boy attempted to combine the aspects geographically, its identity as the for the railroad at the age of 15, of “developing St. Louis as a “Gateway to the West” means it eventually rising in the ranks tourist center and bringing about a is not quite the West, though you until 1962, when he retired as an larger participation in the tourist can see it from there. It is also not executive after 50 years of service.13 industry in our community” prototypically southern, eastern, In 1940, the point when the with educating the public on midwestern, or northern in its Historic Sites Committee was St. Louis history.” 10 The committee culture, but is instead, for good at its most active, Spreen was hoped to develop “an appreciation and for ill, a combination unmarried and living with his of St. Louis as the center from of all of the above. This hybrid mother in the Tower Grove South which the nation was established, identity is also apparent in how neighborhood of south St. Louis.14 expanded and rounded out to St. Louis understands its past, A person of many interests and a the Pacific Coast.” 11 Studying which echoes its various lives as a true booster of St. Louis, Spreen this program, noting what sites French colonial trading post, a was particularly interested in were included, and also what sites Mississippi River steamboat city, history and transportation. In were excluded, we can observe and an industrial center fueled 1910, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch by German, Italian, and Irish J. Orville Spreen (1897-1991), pictured here with the members of the Historic Sites Committee one attempt to construct a city’s noted Spreen as a “Boy Aviator” at a sign marking the location of Fort Davidson, was something of a historical memory, the narrative immigrants as well as an influx who had built model airplanes; rags-to-riches story, starting as an office boy with the Burlington Railroad and of black and white southerners. working his way up to an executive position with the Wabash Railroad. (Image: J. Orville Spreen that those in power wanted to tell eight years later, Spreen obtained Papers, Collection S0486, State Historical Society of Missouri Collection) about their past. The St. Louis These factors, combined with a patent for a “Shoe fastener.” 15 As Historic Markers program racial and economic tensions, a member of the St. Louis Railway provides us a real-time example and a sometime feeling that Enthusiasts Club, in 1951 Spreen of Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s St. Louis’ best days are behind it, published the St. Louis Railroad argument that the “differential create an environment where Enthusiasts Tour of St. Louis, exercise of power . . . makes some past and present exist in an often- and he was also an officer in [historical] narratives possible uncomfortable proximity. Part of the Westerners, an organization and silences others.” 12 While it this discomfort comes from who dedicated to studying the St. Louis is a unique place; geographically, its is clear from their records that is creating the history, and for American West.16 Spreen took his identity as the “Gateway to the West” means it is not the men (and they were all men) what purpose. Revealing how one commitment to the Historic Sites behind the program had a sincere leading community organization Committee very seriously, writing quite the West, though you can see it from there. dedication to history as they worked to create a historical painstaking reports and taking It is also not prototypically southern, eastern, understood it and were meticulous narrative intended to boost dozens of photographs of the when selecting the sites, St. Louis’ image might aid those historic markers. Assisting Spreen midwestern, or northern in its culture, but is instead, researching the text for the in the present day to better in his work was Robert J. (Bob) markers, placing the markers, and understand and face St. Louis’ Pieper, who worked as an office for good and for ill, a complicated past. combination of all of the above. fall ’19/winter ’20

pg. 18 pg. 19 The work of the By the time Martin Stadler Historic Sites Committee created this painting of Joseph Nash McDowell’s began in earnest in the early 1930s, but it hit its stride Medical College at the end of the Civil War, it was being in the late 1930s—in 1939 alone, 58 markers were erected used as the Gratiot Street Prison. McDowell’s college in the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Area. was a bit notorious in St. Louis as an early proponent of human dissection. For more on McDowell’s practices, see manager with the Automobile Division of the Chamber of that in the first two decades of “Anatomy, Grave-Robbing, and Travel Club until World War II Commerce have been interested the twentieth century, there was Spiritualism in Antebellum St. Louis” by Luke Ritter in The and who then served during for at least 15 years in making a growing interest in local history Confluence, spring-summer and after the war as an Air Force known and obtaining the benefits in St. Louis, and a belief that 2012, available at our website. The Union Army took over the officer. Spreen did most of the of St. Louis’ rich historic tradition St. Louis should claim its place in building in late 1861 to use historical research for the sites, —as early as 1924 we made an national history.”22 as a prison for Confederate prisoners of war, sympathizers, and Pieper, as Spreen wrote, effort to raise sufficient finances and others. (Image: Missouri “largely accomplished the difficult to recondition the Grant-Dent Spreen and the others on Historical Society) task of obtaining the consent of House at the S.W. Cor. of Fourth the Historic Sites Committee property owners, storekeepers and Cerre where Julia Dent certainly believed this, but they and others having ground floor and U.S. Grant were married. also noted that they and their The work of the Historic Sites As mentioned above, the During the ceremony of windows to place or erect markers Subsequently efforts have been project ran into indifference Committee began in earnest in committee members attempted unveiling the Site of the Manual on their premises.” 17 made to further historic marking among some St. Louisans. In the Training School bronze marker the early 1930s, but it hit its stride to be meticulous in their research and research was prepared 1939 report, Spreen wrote: an offer was made to provide in the late 1930s—in 1939 alone, of sites and placement of markers. The Historic Sites Committee during that period with a view a bronze marker for the site of members began researching sites As the opportunity presented 58 markers were erected in the Spreen described how the the McDowell Medical College of intelligently accomplishing a our findings were publicized —Gratiot Street Civil War in the late 1920s and erected their 20 Jefferson National Expansion process worked: “members of the realization of historic St. Louis.” and the number of historic 24 Prison. Subsequently research first markers in 1931. The marker markers erected have Memorial Area. While the Committee, through reading and was completed and a proposal program reached its peak during In creating markers and increased more rapidly as program continued during World through other sources, receive made for this marker. However, the creation of the Jefferson marking historic sites, the Historic time went on. It was necessary War II, both a lack of metal for leads on which to work. Research the building of the sponsor, to overcome considerable upon which the marker was to National Expansion Memorial, as Sites Committee was continuing signs, and committee members’ through directories and titles indifference in furthering our military service, hindered establish locations. Texts are be placed, proved to be about discussions of the building of the work begun by previous organizations. program for it was impossible a block south of the site of memorial became more serious As architectural historian Daniel at the start to obtain the progress. In 1945, the committee written from local histories, old the McDowell College-Gratiot and the potential razing of buildings Bluestone notes, “In 1906 the interest of St. Louisans. The erected seven markers and reported newspapers, etc. Permission is St. Prison and the suggested for the memorial area became Civic League’s Historic Sites attitude was that anything that vandalism, weather, and secured from building or lot text for the marker accordingly historic was on the Atlantic states ‘a block north of this 18 time had begun to take their toll owners to place the markers and evident. By 1941, “the Committee Committee proposed a program Seaboard and what St. Louis spot was located’ etc. to completed it[s] comprehensive to mark several historic sites in had to offer was comparatively on existing markers. Thus, the the text is prepared. The marker which objection was made by program of erecting metal shield St. Louis. The committee’s first insignificant. It is a pleasure remaining committee members is then placed and publicity is the sponsor and request made 27 historic markers in the Jefferson plaque, commemorating the now to state there has had to spend considerable time released to the newspapers.” that it state the structure developed a realization of repairing markers.25 By 1951, the Because the markers were often being marked was on the site National Expansion Memorial memory of explorer William St. Louis’ important part in the where the sponsor desired the area. Something of significance Clark, was unveiled in September expansion and establishment committee was no longer erecting dependent upon sponsorship from marker placed. A reply was was proven and a marker erected 1906 on the one hundredth of the U.S. as a nation. markers. During its heyday, however, businesses connected with the made to this proposal that this in all but two city blocks of the anniversary of the Lewis and Furthermore, the events which the committee was selecting, historic site, sometimes conflicts would not be in the interest of centered in St. Louis which researching, and marking dozens arose between the Historic Sites historical accuracy. Inasmuch thirty-eight city blocks and parts Clark expedition’s return to brought about the expansion as the McDowell College- of three other city blocks within St. Louis. The plaque was placed and establishment of the of sites a year. The sites they Committee and the sponsors. Gratiot St. Civil War Prison the Memorial area.” 19 on a bank building that occupied nation are now being considered selected are an illustration of In 1939, Spreen described one Building was on the N.W. Cor. the ground where William Clark equally as important in their a community organization such occasion: of Eight and Gratiot, a site period to events in the upon which a metal shield However, while the impending had lived for many years. The highlighting, in the words of the Jefferson Memorial was the founding of the nation period progress report of the Jefferson marker has been placed but committee also planned to mark which centered in recognized undesirable for a permanent impetus, as Spreen noted in the sites associated with the early historically important eastern Memorial, a history “where the bronze marker, there seems 1939 report, “The Young Men’s European settlement of St. Louis, communities. The provisions memory of the achievements of ample justification for placing 26 the Louisiana Purchase, and the for the Jefferson National our heroes will be enshrined.” a bronze marker near the 21 Expansion Memorial—the spot and so stating. It is still Civil War.” Bluestone argues creating of a national park possible that the sponsor will area of Old St. Louis is evidence agree to the text as correctly of this. With the recent stated and the idea of there issuance of surveys by experts being justification for placing of the National Park Service the marker near the site, all that we had claimed for and so stating, probably St. Louis historically it appears should be advanced further is being confirmed.23 with the sponsor.28 fall ’19/winter ’20

pg. 20 pg. 21

“Historic site and structure tours have again been conducted during the past year with a total attendance of approximately 500.”

Despite such conflicts, as its the history of the Old Court The building of the Jefferson work continued, the Historic House before a gathering of 500 Memorial and the razing of Sites Committee received a great Negroes at the observance of the historic buildings to clear the area amount of support from the 77th Anniversary of President were a source of some tension at community, including publicity Lincoln’s Emancipation times between the Historic Sites in local newspapers and even Proclamation in the Old Court Committee and the National Park in a national magazine. In House, January 1, 1940 and Service, but the two groups also 1944, members noted that the the daily and Negro press learned to work together. The committee’s work was featured in included reference to his part Historic Sites Committee “18 ½ columns of newspaper in the program.” 32 appreciated the prestige of having publicity . . . as well as about a its work recognized by the page of photographic material Additionally, the Historic National Park Service. Numerous published during the year. In one Sites Committee formed valuable yearly reports note that “The case, certain markers were included partnerships to promote its version Historic Sites Committee in the special picture section of a of St. Louis history, receiving co-operated and contributed in Sunday newspaper.”29 The Historic the imprimatur of professional the preparation of the National Sites Committee expanded its historians. A 1939 issue of the Park Service map of the location offerings to conduct tours of St. Missouri Historical Review, the of historic sites and buildings in Louis historic sites, reporting in journal of the State Historical the Jefferson National Expansion 1939, “Historic site and structure Society of Missouri, included an Memorial Area and the Committee tours have again been conducted item describing the work of the was the only group to whom during the past year with a total Historic Sites Committee, and individual acknowledgment was attendance of approximately the Missouri Historical Society given,” pointing out that the Senior 500. Now that a comprehensive featured the work of the Historic Landscape Architect of the layout of historic markers has Sites Committee in its 1945 Jefferson Memorial acknowledged been erected the tours activity Bulletin. The Historic Sites that “the Young Men’s Division offers splendid opportunities Committee members also of the St. Louis Chamber for an important field of future celebrated that their work was of Commerce historic sites 30 mentioned by Lawrence Vail When Spreen and the committee decided to mark this building, the International Fur Exchange work.” Members of the Historic marking committee has made 35 was still among the world’s largest fur trading auction houses. Constructed in 1919, it was Sites Committee also spoke on Coleman, Director of the valuable suggestions.” among the last vestiges of the fur trade that dated to Missouri’s colonial era. Drury Inns started American Association of Museums, restoration of the building in 1997. (Image: Jeffrey Smith) the radio to talk about St. Louis history and gave speeches to in his book, Historic House The primary tension between 33 various organizations advocating Museums. Perhaps most the Historic Sites Committee for acknowledgment of St. Louis’ importantly, a 1939 textbook, and the National Park Service history. 31 The occasion of one St. Louis: Child of the River, was over the razing of buildings of these speeches indicates that Parent of the West, used in St. and what was deemed historically the committee was not outwardly Louis Public Schools, not only significant. These were fights that hostile to the history of mentioned the markers erected the Historic Sites Committee underrepresented groups, but it by the Historic Sites Committee, generally lost, but something of was just rather oblivious to the but also made use of the narrative a compromise was reached, with importance of that history in the text of the markers themselves. Spreen reporting, “The National selection of sites to commemorate. Thus, the Young Men’s Chamber Park Service have taken into their The 1940 committee report of Commerce version of St. custody the Young Men’s Division states, “The Chairman reviewed Louis history was passed on to metal shield markers on structures the next generation. 34 fall ’19/winter ’20

pg. 22 pg. 23

Robert Campbell (1804-1879) arrived from Ireland in 1822 and came to St. Louis the ENDNOTES following year. He became a leading part of the fur trade over the next two decades, constructing 1 Earlier reports note the committee had 15 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 30, 32 Historic Sites Committee Report this house in 1851. Today, it is operated as a erected as many as 194 markers, but by 1910. Annual Report of the Commissioner (1940), Spreen Papers, Box 8, F. 44. historic house museum. Images: Missouri Historical Society, Jeffrey Smith) 1944 only 126 were still in existence. of Patents for the Year 1918, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1919, 502. 33 Cultural Projects Contest Application, 2 Cultural Projects Contest Historic Sites Committee—Young Application, Historic Sites Committee— 16 Midcontinent American Studies Men’s Division of St. Louis Chamber of Young Men’s Division of St. Louis Association Bulletin, Spring 1965. Commerce, Spreen Papers, Box 8, Chamber of Commerce, Orrille Spreen F. 73. Historic Sites Committee Report papers, Box 8, Folder 73. Available at 17 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October (1945), Spreen Papers, Box 8, F. 49. the State Historical Society of Missouri 13, 1952, and letter from J. Orville Research Center at the University Spreen, Spreen papers, Box 8, F. 43. 34 Dena Floren Lange and Merlin Ames, of Missouri-St. Louis. St. Louis: Child of the River, Parent 18 Report, List of Historic Sites Structures of the West, Webster, Mo.: Webster 3 Orville Spreen, Historic Sites and Areas Marked in and Around Publishing, Co. 1939. Committee, Young Men’s Division of St. Louis, MO, 1944 (revised to 1951). the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce 35 Historic Sites Committee Report Report of Activity for the Year 1944 and 19 Historic Sites Committee Report (1939), Spreen Papers, Box 8, F. 43. Recommendations for Future Activity, (1941), Spreen papers, Box 8, F. 45. Spreen papers, Box 8, Folder 48. 36 Ibid. Hereinafter, the reports will be 20 Historic Sites Committee Report referenced as Historic Sites Committee (1939), Spreen papers, Box 8, F. 43. 37 Historic Sites Committee Report Report, followed by the report year. (1943), Spreen Papers, Box 8, F. 47 21 Daniel Bluestone, Buildings, 4 Historic Markers Report (1944), Landscapes, and Memory: Case Studies razed, and according to the plan Committee was one of the first version of history, narratives that Spreen papers, Box 8, F. 48. in Historic Preservation (New York: W.W. Norton, 2010), 138. of Mr. Walter Kerlin, Engineer in steps taken in the house’s are created to build up the esteem 5 Report, List of Historic Sites Structures charge of clearing the area, they preservation. Likewise, the of an area, to gloss over difficult and Areas Marked in and Around 22 Bluestone, Buildings, Landscapes, are to be replaced on barricades at Historic Sites Committee claimed questions in the past, and to erase St. Louis, MO, 1944 (revised to 1951). and Memory, 138. the various locations as the sites to do the “spade work” that led or silence the history of those who 6 Ibid. 23 Historic Sites Committee Report are cleared. In this way they will to the preservation of the Eugene do not fit within a certain paradigm. (1939), Spreen papers, Box 8, F. 43. continue to serve to interpret to Field House, another popular By 1953, because of World War 7 Cultural Projects Contest Application, the public the significance of various museum in today’s St. Louis. II, difficulty in upkeep of the Historic Sites Committee—Young Men’s 24 Ibid. Division of St. Louis Chamber of historic sites, and influence more The Historic Sites Committee markers, and waning interest in Commerce, Spreen papers, Box 8, F. 73. 25 Historic Sites Committee Report substantial marking, during the reported that through its efforts, the program, the Historic Sites (1945), Spreen papers, Box 8, F. 48. development of the Memorial “the house was not torn down Committee of the Young Men’s 8 Report, List of Historic Sites Structures 26 36 and Areas Marked in and Around Progress Report of the Jefferson into permanent form.” along with the others in the row Association of the Chamber St. Louis, MO, 1944 (revised to 1951). National Expansion Memorial, that was razed. As it stood alone of Commerce had erected its final (1940), Spreen papers, Box 2, F. 7. Although the Historic Sites after clearing away the others the marker. In a 1971 update to a 1951 9 Ibid. Committee was not able to save 27 Cultural Projects Contest Application, necessary interest was aroused report, Spreen noted that most of 10 the buildings razed to make way Historic Sites Committee Report Historic Sites Committee—Young Men’s to preserve it. This is an example the markers erected by the group (1939), Spreen papers, Box 8, F. 43. Division of St. Louis Chamber of for the Jefferson Memorial, it did of the policy of the Young Men’s had “disappeared from their Commerce, Spreen papers, Box 8, F. 73. assert its influence in other parts Division in connection with locations,” but that other groups 11 Historic Sites Report (1943), of downtown St. Louis. When St. Spreen papers, Box 8, F. 47. 28 Historic Sites Committee Report preservations. To identify that were continuing to place markers. (1939), Spreen papers, Box 8, F. 43. Louis created a historic landmarks which is available and point the One of the markers he listed was 12 Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Silencing commission, the Historic Sites way for specialized interests to a bronze marker erected in 1966 the Past: Power and the Production of 29 Historic Sites Committee Report Committee offered its extensive 37 History (Boston: Beacon Hill Press, (1942), Spreen papers, Box 8, F. 46. complete the job.” to commemorate “a Spanish Land 1995), 25. Cultural Projects Contest Application, research to the commission to Grant to Esther, a free mulato Historic Sites Committee—Young Men’s facilitate the saving of buildings. For well over a decade, J. [sic], in 1793.” This marker 13 J. Orville Spreen papers overview, the Division of St. Louis Chamber of One of the sites that benefited Orville Spreen and the Historic was erected by the St. Louis State Historical Society of Missouri. Commerce, Spreen papers, Box 8, F. 73. from the Historic Sites Sites Committee did a tremendous Association Colored Womens’ 14 U.S. Census, 1940. 30 Historic Sites Committee Report Committee’s work was the amount of work researching, Clubs, Inc., a group who (1939), Spreen papers, Box 8, F. 43. Campbell House, which now marking, and publicizing historic were now having their own 31 Ibid. stands as a valuable museum in sites in St. Louis. Their work, opportunity to construct a new downtown St. Louis. A marker while admirable in many ways, is historical narrative for St. Louis. placed by the Historic Sites also an example of a boosterism “Their Blood has fall ’19/winter ’20

pg. 24 pg. 25 Flown and Mingled “Whose Blood has withFlowed Ours”: and Mingled The Poli- with Ours”: Slavery took on many images that highlighted its horrors or, as in this image, sought to present the “peculiar institution” in positive terms. (Image: New York Public Library) S The Politics of Slavery i n tics ofIllinois Slavery and Missouri in Illi from -a letter printed in the Missouri Gazette in in the Early Republic In1819, a gentleman an from extractSt. Charles County, Missouri, wrote, “Notwithstanding the foolish apprehensions which have been entertained by certain prophets, that the measures advocated in Congress on the subject of Missouri slavery, would deter emigration from the slave-holding states, never, at this season of the year, has the influx of population . . . been so considerable.”1 The author by lawrence celani goes on to say that the “caravans of movers [from Kentucky and Tennessee], were flowing through our town” towards the “lands of promise” in the Boons Lick on the Missouri River or near nois and Missourithe Salt Riverin in the northeastern part ofthe the territory. Indeed, the period immediately following the War of 1812 had seen a massive influx of migrants into Missouri, mostly from the states of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia, causing the population to increase from just under 20,000 in 1810 to more than 60,000 on the eve of statehood in 1820.2 For slaveholders or middling farmers in the Upper South, Missouri was somewhat of a beacon with seemingly Early Republic unlimited potential for one to start a new life or to grow cash crops, and slavery was the fall ’19/winter ’20

pg. 26 pg. 27

Article VI of the Northwest Ordinance stated that Article the Sixth. There shall be neither slavery “neither slavery or nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, Dating to the late involuntary servitude” seventeenth century, otherwise than in punishment of crimes whereof the Code Noir shall be allowed in the territory. regulated slave and free blacks alike in the French Empire, the party shall have been duly convicted: and became part of race relations in colonial and Provided always, that any person escaping territorial Louisiana. (Image: Wikimedia) into the same, for whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original states, such

the means by which they would which stated that “neither slavery to choose sides on the issue of fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed achieve wealth and prosperity. nor involuntary servitude” shall slavery for the first time in their This inflow of settlers portended be allowed in the territory. lives. This caused divisions within to the person claiming his or her labor the Missouri Crisis from 1819– Still, Illinois residents held a Illinois and Missouri and beyond 1821, which saw a national referendum on whether to over slavery’s future in the West, or service as aforesaid. debate surrounding not only amend the state constitution and it changed the trajectory of whether to admit Missouri as to allow slavery, which they the states’ respective outlooks and a slave state, but also the did in August 1824. Though politics. The short-term results implications that admission the movement failed, the in each place were different—one Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, That of the state would have implications would be large. endorsed slavery while the other for the rest of the Louisiana rejected it—but the long-term the resolutions of the 23rd of April, 1784 relative to Purchase Terriroty. In trying to comprehend the changes these conflicts meaning of these political events, engendered were immense, the subject of this ordinance, be, and the same At the same time, just across the broader Missouri Crisis, and altering the states’ orientations the Mississippi River, Illinois saw the Illinois convention movement, and paths for the future. This are hereby repealed and declared null and void. a similar explosion of population. it is important to understand essay will focus on the former. Though there was some controversy them as examples of a much over whether the territory had larger attempt by slaveholders Historians have had various DONE by the UNITED STATES in CONGRESS reached the appropriate number and proslavery advocates to make explanations for exactly what the assembled, the 13th day of July, in the year of our Lord of inhabitants for statehood in the West safe for slavery, and we convention movement meant for 1787, and of their sovereignty and independence the 12th. 1818, mostly coming from northern must also be aware of how these Illinois and the wider politics of congressmen, the population conflicts came to be understood slavery. Some have noted that the increased more than 300 percent locally or regionally. Both the movement was a battle between 3 between 1810 and 1820. While Missouri Crisis and the movement two opposing ideological forces Article 6 of the Northwest Ordinance (above) kept some slaveowners from some slaveholders ultimately did to legalize slavery in Illinois with incompatible visions for the passing through Illinois when migrating to Missouri, thinking that the Ordinance banned slavery in the territory (present-day Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, migrate to Illinois, most avoided were products of national and future of Illinois society. They and part of northeastern Minnesota). However, the Ordinance also protected them in the state or passed through it international developments such argue that the antislavery retaining or capturing enslaved people. (Image: Library of Congress) on their way to Missouri. The as westward expansion, empire, forces—led by the likes of reason for that, of course, was that and migration, but these events Governor Edward Coles, John slavery was banned by Article VI also helped to generate a political Mason Peck, and others— of the Northwest Ordinance, awakening in their respective were better able to rally their states by forcing many citizens fall ’19/winter ’20

pg. 28 pg. 29

Although opposed to slavery his entire life, Virginia-born Edward Coles (1786-1868) knew Thomas Jefferson and James Madison before moving to the Illinois Territory and becoming the state’s second governor in 1822. When he moved, he “Their Blood has manumitted his slaves he owned in Virginia in 1819 and acquired land for them to farm. (Image: Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library, archive.com) Like Coles, John Mason Peck (1789- 1858) was a prominent opponent of slavery in Illinois as well as Missouri. Peck arrived in St. Louis in 1817 and co-founded the First Baptist Church of St. Louis. (Image: Forty Years of Pioneer Life: Flown and Mingled slavery A Memoir, archive.org) ...most Missourians could not imagine their state without it.

constituencies around this issue to relationship to Illinois, and the important factor, in Illinois defeat the measure. The emergence ones that do generally highlight becoming a free state. The same of an antislavery nationalism the similarities between the two holds true for Missouri, whose during the convention movement, states and the artificiality of the lack of these structures or of most clearly expressed by border dividing them. In turn, anything resembling the Governor Coles, would become these accounts tend to collapse Northwest Ordinance allowed Illinois at the foundation of the Republican all meaningful distinctions that slavery to grow in the years before the time of 4 statehood. Party three decades later. Others actually did differentiate Illinois statehood—so much so, in fact, with Ours”:(Image: David The Poli-have emphasized the economic from Missouri.6 While great work that most Missourians could not Ramsay Map Collection) aspects of the struggle, recognizing on that topic has been written, my imagine their state without it. that the campaign was an attempt larger research goals, only narrowly by poor whites who sought to covered in this essay, stress that As historians such as David destroy the political influence of Missouri and Illinois were Waldstreicher and others have the bourgeois Yankees and the different, and that the border argued, politics in the early republic Southern-born slaveholders who between them, while arbitrary, was simultaneously local dominated politics in early Illinois. had a large impact on how and national, and how people These interpretations recognize the states developed from the understood and defined themselves either implicitly or explicitly that late-eighteenth century through in relationship to the nation was the event was fundamentally a to the antebellum period. filtered through political practices 7 battle over the future of the state, The colonial and territorial and ceremonies at the local level. and whether freedom or slavery institutions put in place in Illinois, Therefore, I seek to understand tics of Slavery in Illiwould dominate-.5 most importantly the Northwest the local and national debates Ordinance, laid out the legal and that surrounded the Missouri Very few studies account political structures of that Crisis and the Illinois convention for Missouri’s role in these territory, and the Ordinance was movement, which I argue had the developments and their a key factor, perhaps the most opposite effect. Consequently, this nois and Missouri in the Early Republic fall ’19/winter ’20

pg. 30 pg. 31

Thomas Hart Benton (1782- Illinois and Missouri occupied a space that 1858) ranks among Missouri’s James Tallmadge (1778-1853) most noted senators. When has been termed the ...where the is perhaps best known as an he first moved to the Missouri “American Confluence,” antislavery member of the Territory he became one of House of Representatives the region’s most influential Missouri, Mississippi, and Ohio rivers converge. who proposed the “Tallmadge opinion-makers as editor of Amendment” to the bill the Missouri Enquirer. He was allowing Missouri to become a the architect of ideas about state by restricting slavery and Manifest Destiny in the West, phasing it out, requiring that and a defender of Jacksonian “the further introduction of Democracy and Andrew slavery or involuntary servitude Jackson, despite his having essay attempts to understand how much of the colonial period and American South or in the wider be prohibited, except for the wounded Jackson earlier punishment of crimes, whereof in a brawl. (Image: Library and why Missourians came to beyond. The French brought Atlantic World. This situation the party shall have been fully of Congress) see themselves differently from slaves to the Illinois Country in would carry over into the Early convicted; and that all children born within the said State their counterparts in Illinois. the early eighteenth century to Republic. By the 1810s, both Illinois [Missouri] after the admission work in the lead mines of and Missouri were beginning to thereof into the Union, shall be By the Civil War, both Illinois free at the age of twenty-five present-day southeastern Missouri come to terms with slavery in years.” The House passed the and Missouri looked vastly different and southern Illinois. Slavery even their respective territories. Despite Amendment but the Senate culturally, economically, and did not. (Image: New York existed in some form for centuries the Northwest Ordinance’s ban Public Library) politically, but those differences before European contact, and it on “slavery and involuntary had not always been as pronounced functioned as a way for indigenous servitude,” unfree labor dominated as they would come to be by 1860. groups to organize power and to the social and political system of they submitted their application Missouri by that time. Petitions allow them to enter the Union Both were once part of French fashion diplomatic ties.9 A hybrid Illinois in the period immediately for statehood in 1818. They faced for statehood had begun circulating on “equal footing” with the other Louisiana, occupying what some slave system of Indian and African preceding statehood. Illinois had a challenging dilemma. If the among residents of the territory states. The “anti-restrictionist” have termed a borderland, and the slavery emerged and would have the largest slave population in the majority proslavery constitutional in 1817, and the first petitions crusade in Missouri reached a connections forged there did not broad implications into the Northwest Territory, with most convention passed a state were submitted to Congress in head in 1820, when the debates in vanish when the French lost their nineteenth century, when laws enslaved people either working constitution that was seen as early 1818. For various reasons, Congress were at their apotheosis. colonies to the British and Spanish began to be passed defining slavery in the rich alluvial plain of the too proslavery, it would likely be they would have to wait nearly Public meetings were held in the Seven Years’ War, nor did in strictly racial terms. Though American Bottom or in the salt rejected by Congress and possibly a year before a statehood bill throughout the territory, the that relationship completely break plantation slavery on the scale of mines near Shawneetown. Aside draw unwanted attention to the would finally be heard.14 By early newspapers printed news from when the region began to become contemporary colonies in British from this, a system of quasi-slavery system in Illinois. If they passed a 1819, Congress was finally ready Congress on their proceedings, heavily populated and overrun by North America never really took existed in the Illinois Territory, constitution similar to Indiana’s, to debate the topic of Missouri and tensions were known to get Americans in the late-eighteenth hold in the region, a successful where thousands of former slaves with explicit provisions that statehood when an enabling quite heated. On the one hand, and early nineteenth centuries. export economy surrounding the were converted to indentured prevented the further introduction act was submitted that would Joseph Charless, the editor of As stated above, however, we must trade in cereal grain emerged in servants with contracts lasting up of the practice, then proslavery allow Missourians to form a the Missouri Gazette and Public be careful not to take that too the eighteenth century, and the to 99 years.11 However, indentured Illinoisans would not get what constitutional convention. The Advertiser, argued that the people far, and it is in moments like the Illinois Country would prove to servitude was not slavery, and they wanted, and they would be antislavery representative James of the territory should decide Missouri Crisis and the Illinois be a valuable colony in France’s the fact that slaveholders had to forced to either sell their slaves, Tallmadge “tossed a bombshell the issue of slavery, which three convention movement that the Atlantic Empire, providing the either create or find a way around convert them to indentures, or into the Era of Good Feelings” decades later would come to be ruptures between these two states, provisions for slave colonies in the this loophole suggests that move.12 The constitution that was by proposing that gradual known as popular sovereignty. and eventually between the North Caribbean. By the 1750s, around the Northwest Ordinance was passed ultimately did draw the ire emancipation and the further That slavery was even a question and South, became manifest. 40 percent of French settlers in a powerful barrier with which of antislavery congressmen such importation of slaves be was proving to be a controversial the Illinois Country owned slaves, slaveholders were forced to contend. as James Tallmadge, James Taylor, prohibited as a condition of position. On the other hand, John For nearly a century, Illinois and in Missouri the slave population and Arthur Livermore, but Missouri statehood.15 This single Scott and Thomas Hart Benton and Missouri occupied a space accounted for around 13 percent Unfree labor was well integrated the constitution passed by a event would set off a national emerged as the territory’s that has been termed the “American of the population by the turn in the Illinois economy by the wide margin, and slavery was and regional debate about the strongest advocates for the Confluence,” a vast region in the of the nineteenth century.10 1810s and had continued to be protected in Illinois. future of slavery in the West. admittance of Missouri with North American interior where a political issue for much of the slavery intact.16 The latter’s the Missouri, Mississippi, and Slavery in the American period that immediately preceded Missourians looked with Missourians themselves were newspaper, the Ohio rivers converge.8 Despite St. Louis Enquirer, Confluence developed into its statehood in 1818. Proslavery curiosity on Illinois during this deeply committed to the cause of helped launch Benton’s political slavery’s long tradition in the 13 own discrete and heterogeneous Illinoisans had to carefully navigate process. That the territory would statehood and felt betrayed by the career, and it was known to region, the system had occupied a system; as a result, it never established a changing regional and national submit a proslavery constitution Tallmadge Amendment, which publish editorials pushing for unique, if imprecise, place within the institutional backing that terrain surrounding slavery when was all but a foregone conclusion, would restrict their freedom to statehood and anti-restriction.17 the American Confluence for other forms of slavery took in the as slavery was well-established in own slaves and potentially not fall ’19/winter ’20

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Residents of Missouri and While residents of Missouri ground, of course, recognized this, toasted the MissouriIllinois closely followed the debatester were some of the- strongest which is why those who migrated in Congress, and they were deeply advocates for unconditional with slaves from the Upper South, A Mr. Daniel Smith of Edwardsville concerned with the future of statehood, residents of Illinois or those who sought to own their states. Toasts published in were somewhat divided over slaves, clearly preferred Missouri toasted quite humorously, that... the local newspapers indicate not the issue, both at the state to Illinois. only a striking awareness of the constitutional convention and implications of the Missouri Crisis, beyond. Admitting slavery in After a bitter and protracted but also the knowledge of the Missouri could make the push for struggle that lasted nearly three constitutional questions that the slavery by proslavery advocates years, the Missouri Crisis was “if must be tolerated process provoked. Missourians in Illinois easier. The contingent finally settled with the help of slavery gave tribute to their political leaders, at the Illinois state constitutional Henry Clay and Jesse Burgess urging them to gain sense and convention had hoped to revisit Thomas, the latter a senator from [in Missouri], let it be allow their territories to become a the issue of slavery at some point Illinois. Still, it was the antislavery ritory, that it may state.enter A number of Irishmen met in the future, and the admittance speeches by Cook, himself Illinois’ on St. Patrick’s Day 1820 in of a proslavery Missouri might lone representative in the House on these terms, that master St. Louis and toasted the Missouri make that possible. Conversely, of Representatives and the only Territory, that it may enter its allowing slavery in Missouri member of the state’s delegation and slave change positions “entitled rank among the states could also antagonize the growing to vote against the admission of of the union” and may have “a antislavery contingent in Illinois, Missouri, that angered Missouri’s constitution of her own choice.” 18 led by the likes of Governor slaveholders. In an interesting every seven years!” The meeting of the St. Louis Coles, Daniel P. Cook, and John episode of interstate conflict that Mechanics Benevolent Society Mason Peck, among others.20 would further inflame antislavery went so far as to toast not only In his History of Illinois, future advocates, the editor of the Missouri but Illinois, which at the governor Thomas Ford reveals Edwardsville Spectator revealed time was approaching statehood, a different view, writing that at that he had uncovered a conspiracy and whose “blood has flowed the time of the Missouri Crisis, by Missourians who were plotting its “entit led rank and mingledamong with ours.” 19 A Mr. “every great road [in Illinois] was to make Illinois a slave state. Daniel Smith of Edwardsville crowded and full” of immigrants Apparently, proslavery Missourians toasted, quite humorously, that “if bound for Missouri, and that the were attempting to purchase the slavery must there be tolerated [in “short-sighted policy of Illinois” Illinois Gazette in Shawneetown Missouri], let it be on these terms, prevented slaveholders coming and establish another newspaper that master and slave change from the east from settling and in Edwardsville, which would 23 conditions every seven years!” purchasing lands in Illinois.21 serve as a base of their operations. Many in Missouri and Illinois saw The fact that slavery was illegal in In his memoirs, Peck dedicated that entering the union on each Illinois caused great anxiety in the several pages to the Illinois state’s own terms was crucial, and early years of statehood for some, convention movement, concluding that a sense of kinship was felt and it was clear to many at the that “there can be no doubt that by those on either side of the time that its illegality was holding a deep-laid plan was formed for Mississippi. It seems that for at the state back and preventing its securing the consummation of least some inhabitants of residents from taking part in the this scheme [to admit slavery in the states of the union” 24 Illinois, the Missouri Crisis was wealth and prosperity that new Illinois].” Though there is little theirs as well. migrants with slaves could offer.22 evidence of an actual conspiracy Slaveholders and people on the by proslavery Missourians and and may have “a consti- tution fall ’19/winter ’20

pg. 34 pg. 35

Missourians became ENDNOTES 1 Missouri Gazette and Public 8 Aron, American Confluence. 17 Harrison Anthony Trexler, Slavery in that Advertiser, June 3, 1819. Missouri, 1804–1865 (Baltimore: Johns convinced was 9 Brett Rushforth, Bonds of Alliance: Hopkins University Press, 1914), 100–108; slavery 2 George Dangerfield, The Awakening Indigenous and Atlantic Slaveries F. C. Shoemaker, Missouri’s Struggle for central to their of American Nationalism, 1815–1828 in New France (Chapel Hill: University Statehood, 1804–1821 (New York: Russell (Prospect Heights, Ill. Waveland Press, of North Carolina Press, 2014), 29. & Russell, 1969), 109–33; Ken Mueller, progress and prosperity... 1994), 109; Sean Wilentz, The Rise of Senator Benton and the People: Master American Democracy: Jefferson to 10 Margaret Cross Norton, Illinois Census Race Democracy on the Early American Lincoln (New York: Norton, 2005), 223. Returns, Collections of the Illinois State Frontiers (DeKalb: Northern Illinois Press, Historical Library (Springfield: Trustees 2014). See St. Louis Enquirer, March 17, 3 Rep. James Tallmadge of New York of the Illinois State Historical Library, 1819, and St. Louis Enquirer, June 16, 1819, was suspicious of Illinois’ territorial 1934), xxi, xxvi; Carl J. Ekberg, French for the clearest expression of Benton’s Illinoisans working together to on slavery. Illinoisans were more Morrow Prize population, and he requested a Roots in the Illinois Country: The political ideology, where he articulates document be submitted to Congress Mississippi Frontier in Colonial Times his vision of westward expansion, legalize slavery, many at the time conflicted over the issue of slavery This article received the 2017 Lynn “showing that the Territory had the (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, and issues in January 1819 to March began to lament the closeness of in Missouri, as well as the future population required” to apply for 2000), 152; Lorenzo J. Greene, Gary R. 1820, where he expresses his proslavery the two states, and the differences of slavery in their own state. and Kristen Morrow Missouri History statehood. See Annals of Cong., 2nd Kremer, and Antonio Frederick Holland, position for Missouri. Student Prize, awarded for the best Sess., 306. Missouri’s Black Heritage (Columbia: were becoming more pronounced. While a large antislavery contingent 18 student paper on an aspect of Missouri University of Missouri Press, 1993), 14; Missouri Gazette and Public Advertiser, The borderland was becoming a existed in the former during the 4 Suzanne Cooper Guasco, Confronting J. Viles, “Population and Extent of March 22, 1820. site of conflict and division, early years of statehood, the history presented at the Missouri Slavery: Edward Coles and the Rise of Settlement in Missouri before 1804,” 19 which would become much more legislature was dominated by Conference on History. The annual Antislavery Politics in Nineteenth- Missouri Historical Review 5, no. 4 Ibid., July 10, 1818. Missouri Conference on History Century America (DeKalb: Northern (n.d.): 189–213. evident as the years went on. Southern interests, which Illinois University Press, 2013), 105–33; 20 Memoir of John Mason Peck, ed. brings together teachers of history and meant that legalizing slavery was Suzanne Cooper Guasco, “‘The 11 M. Scott Heerman, “In a State of Rufus Babcock (Philadelphia: American The Missouri Crisis and the a major concern. other professional historians to share Deadly Influence of Negro Capitalists’: Slavery: Black Servitude in Illinois, Baptist Publication Society, 1864). convention movement in Illinois in the presentation of the results of Southern Yeomen and Resistance to the 1800–1830,” Early American Studies: 21 research, to exchange information on Expansion of Slavery in Illinois,” Civil War An Interdisciplinary Journal 14, no. 1 Thomas Ford, A History of Illinois, were crucial events in the politics These episodes tell us much History 47, no. 1 (2001): 7–29. See also (2016): 114–39, https://doi.org/10.1353/ From Its Commencement as a State in of slavery that would develop about the politics of slavery in teaching and curriculum, to consider Daniel Peart, Era of Experimentation: eam.2016.0003; Paul Finkelman, 1818 to 1847 (New York: Ivison & in the antebellum period. Some the Mississippi River borderland ways to promote interest in history American Political Practices in the Early “Evading the Ordinance: The Persistence Phinney, 1854), 51. historians have argued that the in the years before the Civil War. and the welfare of the profession, Republic (Charlottesville: University of Bondage in Indiana and Illinois,” of Virginia Press, 2014), 47–72, for a Journal of the Early Republic 9, no. 1 22 Matthew W. Hall, Dividing the Missouri Crisis was in many ways Connections or kinship between and to discuss other concerns common different perspective. (1989): 21–51; James Edward Davis, Union: Jesse Burgess Thomas and the a rehearsal for the conflicts that Illinois and Missouri obviously to all historians. Frontier Illinois (Bloomington: Indiana Making of the Missouri Compromise would arise in the era of the Civil never went away, giving slavery a 5 James Simeone, Democracy and University Press, 1998), 165–66. (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University 25 Slavery in Frontier Illinois: The Press, 2016), 116–17. Wa r. While that may be true, it central role in the politics and culture Bottomland Republic (DeKalb: Northern 12 Davis, Frontier Illinois, 166; M. Scott is clear that in the Missouri Crisis, in the West. Eventually, those Illinois University Press, 2000). Heerman, The Alchemy of Slavery: 23 Glover Moore, The Missouri a free labor discourse did emerge, connections would come to play Human Bondage and Emancipation Controversy, 1819–1821 (Lexington: 6 Historians who are especially guilty in the Illinois Country, 1730–1865 University of Kentucky Press, 1966), while at the same time Southerners a divisive role in the years before of this are Stephen Aron, Christopher (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania 284–87; Norman Dwight Harris, The began to articulate a vision of the Civil War. As the expansion Phillips, Matthew Salafia, and Anne Press, 2018), 98–99. History of Negro Servitude in Illinois a West with slavery intact.26 of slavery became more fraught Twitty. Stephen Aron, American and of the Slavery Agitation in That 13 Missourians became convinced and contested, the structures and Confluence: The Missouri Frontier See issues of the Missouri Gazette, State, 1719–1864 (New York: Negro from Borderland to Border State Missouri Intelligencer and St. Louis Universities Press, 1969), 27–29. See also that slavery was central to their institutions put in place on either (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, Enquirer in 1823–24. Edwardsville Spectator, August 1, 1820. progress and prosperity as a state, side of the border would play a 2006); Anne Twitty, Before Dred and therefore were the strongest large role in how each place came Scott: Slavery and Legal Culture in the 14 “Memorial of the Citizens of the 24 Memoir of John Mason Peck, 195. American Confluence, 1787–1857 (New Missouri Territory,” http://digital.shsmo. advocates for the admission of to understand slavery’s role in its York: Cambridge University Press, 2016). org/cdm/ref/collection/GovColl/ 25 Moore, The Missouri Controversy, their state without restrictions future. For Illinois, the Northwest For a delineation of the problems id/20762 1819-1821. Ordinance, while regularly with borderlands as a framework, see Johann N. Neem, “From Polity to 15 Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath 26 Joshua Michael Zeitz, “The Missouri circumventing slavery, proved too Exchange: The Fate of Democracy in God Wrought: The Transformation of Compromise Reconsidered: Antislavery difficult a thing to evade entirely. the Changing Fields of Early American America, 1815-1848 (Oxford: Rhetoric and the Emergence of the Historiography,” Modern Intellectual Oxford University Press, 2007), 147. Free Labor Synthesis,” Journal of the History 15, no. 3 (2018): 1–22. Early Republic 20, no. 3 (2000): 447–85, 16 Perry McCandless, “The Rise of https://doi.org/10.2307/3125065; 7 David Waldstreicher, In the Midst of Thomas H. Benton in Missouri Guasco, Confronting Slavery. Perpetual Fetes: The Making of American Politics,” Missouri Historical Review Nationalism, 1776–1820 (Chapel Hill: 50, no. 1 (1955): 18–20. University of North Carolina Press for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, 1997), 10. pg. 36

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

zachary dowdle bryan jack lawrence celani

Zachary Dowdle is a Bryan Jack is Associate Lawrence Celani is a Ph.D. postdoctoral fellow with Professor of History at candidate in history at the the Kinder Institute on Southern Illinois University University of Missouri- Constitutional Democracy Edwardsville, where he Columbia and is currently at the University of teaches African American the James W. Goodrich Missouri-Columbia. history. He received his MA Fellow at the State Historical A former James W. (American Studies) from Society of Missouri. His Goodrich Fellow with the the University of Alabama dissertation centers on State Historical Society and his Ph.D. (American the contested process of Missouri, he holds a Studies) from Saint of border-making in the Ph.D. in history from the Louis University. He is the late-eighteenth and University of Missouri. editor of Southern History on early nineteenth centuries His dissertation, titled Screen (University Press of by indigenous and “Reluctant Emancipator: Kentucky, 2018) and author Euro-American peoples in James Sidney Rollins and of The Saint Louis African the territories that would the Politics of Slavery and American Community and the become Illinois and Missouri. Freedom in the Border Exodusters (University of He has been supported by South, 1838-1882,” examines Missouri Press, 2007) as well grants from the McNeil the development of free-soil as numerous book chapters Center for Early American politics in Missouri among and journal articles. He lives Studies, the Abraham wealthy, slaveholding in the City of St. Louis. Lincoln Presidential Library, Unionist Whigs. and the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy, among other places. 209 South Kingshighway Saint Charles, MO 63301-1695 www.lindenwood.edu/confluence LLC ©2019 Lindenwood University All rights reserved. Design: Michael Thede Design Design: Michael Thede All rights reserved. University Lindenwood ©2019