Missouri Slave Populations

I rarely write an entire blog entry and I doubt today will be no different. I have been working on Genealogy since 2002, when my Father passed away.  During that time I have only completed 1 African American family research project. I did this project because I wanted to see if I could trace a modern African American family from today back to their slave owners. I was successful in doing this and used a woman I had dated from my past. 

The last several months I have become interested in the Black experience in America and the lives of the slaves that had lived. The map below is the from the 1860 Census of the slaves in the state of Missouri. I find it abhorrent that people were owned, traded, sold as common as cattle or other animals. These people were treated and used as economic tools of Plantation owners, Colleges, and Governments at all levels. 

The map below is a telling tale and we as Genealogists, Historians, family members are lucky these exist, even as disgusting as they are. If you have #Slave roots in the state of #Missouri I hope this helps you in your research.  There is a link to the story of the slave population of 1860 for the state of Missouri. It references the concentration of the slave population along the Missouri river, the center of commerce and the economic engine of Missouri at that time.

https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2010/12/16/1860-map-shows-missouris-slave-population