History of slavery in Missouri

Immediately prior to the American Civil War, there were about 100,000 enslaved people in Missouri, about half of whom lived in the 18 western counties near the Kansas border.

[1] The institution of slavery only became especially prominent in the area following two major events: the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1793, and the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

These events led to the westward migration of slave-owning American settlers into the area of present Missouri and Arkansas, then known as Upper Louisiana.

Scott had spent several years living in Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory with his owner, Dr. John Emerson, before returning to Missouri in 1840.

The landmark decision found the provisions of the Missouri Compromise of 1820 unconstitutional, and helped to fan the flames of conflict between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States.

Missouri, before 1850, was bordered on the west and northwest with vast and sparsely populated territories obtained via the Louisiana Purchase and the Mexican Cession.

[5] On December 20, 1858, John Brown entered Vernon County in southwest Missouri, liberated 11 slaves, took captive two white men, and looted horses and wagons.

As one of the border states during the American Civil War, Missouri was exempt from President Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation decreeing the freedom of slaves in all territory then held by Confederate forces.

On January 11, 1865, a state convention approved an ordinance abolishing slavery in Missouri by a vote of 60–4,[6] and later the same day, Governor Thomas C. Fletcher followed up with his own "Proclamation of Freedom".