The history of slavery in Missouri began in 1720, when a man named Philippe Francois Renault brought about 500 negro slaves from Santo Domingo to work in lead mines in the River des Peres area, located in the present-day St. Louis and Jefferson counties.
The institution only became prominent in the area following two major events: the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney (1793). This led to a mass movement of slave-owning proprietors to the area of present-day Missouri and Arkansas, then known as Upper Louisiana. However, the spread of major cotton growth was limited to the more southerly area, near the border with present-day Arkansas. Instead, slavery in the other areas of Missouri was concentrated into other major crops, such as tobacco, hemp, grain and livestock. A number of slaves were hired out as stevedores, cabin boys, or deck hands for the ferries of the Mississippi River.
The majority of slaveowners in Missouri came from the worn-out agricultural lands of North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia/West Virginia. By 1860, only 36 counties in Missouri had 1,000 or more slaves; top male slaves fetched a price of $1,300 ($33,627 as of 2013), and top female slaves fetched around $1,000 ($25,867 as of 2013). The value of all the slaves in Missouri was estimated by the State Auditor's 1860 report at around US$44,181,912 ($1,142,838,790 as of 2013).
Read more about History Of Slavery In Missouri: Slave Codes, Abolitionism
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