Little Dixie (Missouri)
[1] A 1948 article in the Missouri Historical Review defined the antebellum "Little Dixie" region as a 13-county area between the Mississippi River north of St. Louis to Missouri River counties in the central part of the state (Audrain, Boone, Callaway, Chariton, Howard, Lincoln, Pike, Marion, Monroe, Ralls, Randolph, Saline, and Shelby counties).
[2] When the Southerners migrated to Missouri, they brought their cultural, social, agricultural, architectural, political and economic practices, including slavery.
New Madrid County, along the Mississippi River south of St. Louis, also had a high percentage of enslaved Africans, but was not considered part of the region.
In addition, planters in "Outer Little Dixie" counties, such as Platte, Howard, Chariton and Ralls,[4] grew millions of pounds of tobacco on large plantations with 20 or more slaves.
[citation needed] Some farmers and planters grew cotton and sent their surplus down the Missouri River to St. Louis, and down the Mississippi to New Orleans.
[citation needed] In Howard County, developed along the river for plantations, planters named their large estates in the Southern style, such as Greenwood, Redstone, Oakwood and Sylvan Villa.
"[5] Black communities rapidly established independent churches and schools to express their own culture and create a sphere outside white supervision.
[6]In keeping with competition and fears among whites, they exercised a higher frequency of mob violence against blacks and lynchings of African Americans in this region than in other parts of the state.
The pattern appears to be strongly associated with the history of slavery, the rural economy after the war, and white efforts to establish dominance in resulting race relations.
[7] In the "nadir" period, there were 13 lynchings of black men in total in Boone, Howard, Monroe, Pike, and Randolph counties.
African Americans left the region in the Great Migration for northern and midwestern industrial cities, including St. Louis.
[14] As a result of the study, the state recommended numerous African-American schools for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.
