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Slavery North of St. Louis is a study of the slave system in seven Missouri counties along the Mississippi river from St. Charles to Clark. To the east was the free state of Illinois, and to the north was the free state of Iowa. The vulnerability of slavery to attack by abolitionists was obvious, and the region became paranoid about threats to the system.While many think of slaves as being all alike, there were many different reactions to their situation in this region. Some were obedient and loyal, and others were hostile and even rebellious. In the book, over 70 slaves are identified by name, and each of those is discussed as an individual. Three of the slaves became well known: the mountain man Jim Beckwourth, abolitionist spokesman William Wells Brown, and Augustine Tolton, the first black Catholic priest in the United States. The tools helping the slaves survive the system are discussed: their family, religion, music, sense of humor; recreational activities, and pride in their abilities.
The whites in the story also range in their qualities as well. Catherine Collier buys slaves to keep families together, gives them job skills and education, then gives them freedom. Ezra Ely buys an escaped slave as an act of charity, and on one night, the slave, Ambrose, comes to his house to work for him. There are also cruel owners - Thornton who kills a slave for stealing a chicken, the temperamental Ben Robinson, and trader White who gives a crying slave child to strangers.
The slave system itself is discussed, how masters disposed of their slave property (the slave trade, hiring out, and how they became pawns when the masters made out their wills). Slaves in the justice system describes actions by legal authorities that might surprise many modern readers.
The system found itself in a struggle with opponents in Missouri and across the rivers, individuals like Elijah Lovejoy, David Nelson, Richard Eells, and Elihu Frazier and his fighting Quakers. This war, like any conflict, had its casualties on both sides, killed, wounded and disappearing. By the 1850's, the consensus that had always supported some slavery in Missouri was breaking. When Civil War came, public opinion split wide open between Unionists and Southern sympathizers. The collapse of slavery came swiftly when the public concluded the state was better off without it.
The Author:
George R. Lee, Prof. Emeritus of History at Culver-Stockton College received his degrees from Northeastern Oklahoma State Univ. and the Univ. of Oklahoma. In 1969-1970, he was a fellow at the Institute of Southern History at Johns Hopkins Univ. After teaching in Kansas and Colorado, he came to Culver-Stockton College in 1962. He retired in 1998. Since retiring, he has served as pastor of a small church, and a volunteer hospital and jail chaplain to prisoners at the county jail.
Five Excerpts from the Book:
Chapter 1 - SLAVERY COMES TO MISSOURI
In 1811, those living north and west of St. Charles knew they were on the frontier after an attack by Indians. Mrs. Jonathan Bryan, a kinswoman of Daniel Boone, was working in her yard with a slave woman when a boy slave screamed. She saw an Indian warrior heading for them with a tomahawk in one hand, and a gun in the other. The women ran for the house. Just as they were slamming the door, they caught the warrior's head and right arm between the door and facing. The slave woman grabbed the hatchet from his hand and killed him with a sharp blow. The women had barely recovered from their fright when the boy shouted again.
Chapter 3 MASTERS AND SLAVES
The most feared threat was a
conspiracy involving a large group of slaves in imitation of Nat
Turner. Such an event occurred in rural Lewis County on the John
McCutchan farm. The McCutchan family was aroused on a night in November 1849
by suspicious sounds. He heard voices in the kitchen, which was
connected by a passage way to the main house. That same night, a slave
of James Miller came to his house, asked for a fire, and walked passed the
gunrack. Miller later became suspicious, and when he called, no slave
answered. After rousing the family, he found both of his guns missing from
the rack.
Chapter 4. LIVES OF SLAVES
An 1847 law provided that anyone
operating a school which taught Negroes and mulattoes to read and write
could be fined $500 or imprisoned six months. (73) The law did not
prohibit masters from educating their slaves if they chose. Michael West's
owner taught him to read from her children's text books, the Bible and the History
of Great Americans.... (74)
Chapter 6
The Marion County case
of Tarlton v John Anderson involved the rights of an illegally
enslaved person to counsel a poor person. Tarlton was one of five free
blacks working in Quincy, Ill., who was captured and held as a slave in
Missouri by Anderson. The lawsuit began in 1834, but was complicated by
Anderson's death. In 1837, it came to trial before a circuit court jury.
It's verdict was that Tarlton and the others should be released. Tarlton was
given $200 in damages, and the other blacks received lesser amounts. (11)
Chapter 7. THREATS TO THE SYSTEM
Elijah Lovejoy and trouble
were constant companions. In October 1837, Lovejoy preached at St.
Charles. After the Sunday night service, he went to the home of his
mother-in-law who was caring for his pregnant wife. A mob gathered; two men
came in, and took Lovejoy down the steps of the house. When Mrs. Lovejoy
tried to reach him, a man armed with a dirty stick tried to stop her; she
slapped him. Pushing her way through the crowd, she threw her arms around
Lovejoy's neck. When crowd members tried to take him away, she slapped them
too. Her pluck worked for a while, but it was when a slave owner cooled the
crowd down that they left. (49)
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