Rest in Peace, Dred and Harriet Scott

In uncovering the footprints of the chattel slavery that existed in this nation, several dots are connected by the Slave Dwelling Project in interesting ways. While sleeping is a very simple concept, I’ve spent nights at Monticello and Poplar Forest, both of which belonged to President Thomas Jefferson. I’ve spent nights at Montpelier, the Octagon House and Belle Grove Plantation all of which have a connection to President James Madison. I’ve slept at Fort Crawford and given a presentation at the White House of the Confederacy in Richmond, VA, both of which have ties to Jefferson Davis. I’ve spent nights at four of the twelve sites of slave-owning presidents. I’ve spent nights on the campuses of seven institutions of higher learning that have a history rooted in slavery.

My recent trip to St. Louis, Missouri would extend the ties to Dred and Harriet Scott. Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of spending a night at Fort Snelling in Minnesota where both Harriet and Dred Scott were enslaved by Dr. John Emerson, a United States Army surgeon. During the time of purging Natives, Emerson was one of many Army officers who received money from the government to hire a personal servant. These Army officers pocketed the money and enslaved a person to perform those duties. 

The state of Missouri was prominent in its role of supporting chattel slavery. To that end, the Slave Dwelling Project has spent nights in slave dwellings in Lexington, Pilot Grove and St. Genevieve, Missouri. Hemp was a prominent crop in Missouri and required slave labor.

Missouri has also dealt one of the worst blows to the Slave Dwelling Project. Under the cover of darkness, one private owner chose to tear down the slave dwelling rather than restoring it.

This trip to Missouri would be different. The Association of African Ancestored Researchers of St. Louis attempted to get the Slave Dwelling Project to come to St. Louis in 2017 but the proposed date did not work. This miscue proved to be a blessing because what we planned for 2018 was robust, required lots of partnerships and had the potential to reach a vast audience.

19 Wednesday- Meet & Greet
Webster Groves Historical Society Hawken House– Hearth Room
5:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m.
Mingle with invited guest.
7:00-8:15 p.m. mini presentation with questions and answers
8:30-9:45 p.m. Conversation with invited guest
Return to hotel

20 Thursday Morning-Education Day
Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site– White Haven
9:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.
Presentations to school-aged- children (they move from booth to booth at allotted times)
Return to hotel
Evening

First Missouri State Capital Historic Site
7:00 p.m. -9:00 presentation and food tasting
Return to hotel

21 Friday Morning
Harris-Stowe State University (HBCU) 
11:00 Presentation to college students and maybe parents
This is Family and Friends Weekend
Evening
Sleepover at the Campbell House

22 Saturday Afternoon
Florissant Valley Branch of the St. Louis County Library
195 New Florissant Rd., S Florissant, Florissant, MO 63031
1:00-3:00 p.m. Meeting rooms 1 & 2
Return to hotel

Our first event was a meet and greet attended by a cozy group of members of the Association of African Ancestored Researchers of St. Louis and others interested in genealogy. This gathering was a good indication of what to expect of the other planned events.

Twelve of our former presidents enslaved people. In that count, people almost always forget to include President Ulysses S. Grant. His connection to the Union Army makes that oversight forgivable. My host planned an opportunity for me to participate in a living history event at the Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site – White Haven. While first-person presentation is not my style, living historians at the event portrayed Frederick Douglas, Dr. Martin Luther King, Harriet Tubman, a Civil War soldier, and other local and national prominent characters. While dressed in a period uniform, I gave a 3rd person presentation about the Slave Dwelling Project to the 500 students in attendance. One interesting element was that there were some students who were hearing impaired. I was caught off guard when, during the question and answer period, one of the students wanted to know how enslaved people with their condition would have been treated.

Once in the past, Missouri’s state capital was St Charles. Marvin Alonzo Greer is Missouri Historical Society’s Education and Visitor Experience Lead at Soldiers Memorial Military Museum. Marvin is one of those rare African American Civil War reenactors and we have attended many events together in the past. My host called on Marvin to conduct a cooking demonstration at Missouri’s Old State Capital. An examination of the bricks on the Old State Capitol and it did not take Marvin long to find fingerprints of the person who assisted in making that brick. The crowd of about fifty diverse people was treated to a presentation about the Slave Dwelling Project and a presentation by Marvin about the food before they could indulge in the shrimp gumbo that Marvin prepared over the open fire. Rules governing the site would not allow us to have a sleepover there. 

The next day, a Slave Dwelling Project presentation at Harris-Stowe State University, a Historically Black College or University (HBCU), yielded another cozy but interesting group.

The Campbell House would be the highlight of my trip to St. Louis, however sleeping there alone and outside did not sound appealing. Again, a cozy group made an appearance. The house is located in an urban setting. Unfortunately, my examination of the unpainted bricks on the structure yielded no fingerprints. Once in the very early stages of the Slave Dwelling Project, I had no desire to tour the big house because they did not appeal to me. That has now changed because I now examine the means in which the enslaved functioned within those spaces. Architects of that period designed buildings that could keep the races separated within the space, if that was what the owners wanted. A great example of this was having two sets of stairs within the building. Andy, our guide, gave us one of the best tours of a mansion that I have ever received. Sure, it was a tour created just for us, but that did not matter to me, because the well-documented content of the enslaved was included.

Although I had the option to say no to the sleepover, I knew that coming all this way to St. Louis, Missouri and saying no would be a decision that I would regret for the rest of my life. My host and Campbell House staff provided the sleeping materials necessary for me to make a sleepover alone in the gazebo quite comfortable. It was also great that Mother Nature cooperated with no rain and overnight low that hovered around 60 degrees. Although I find myself rarely sleeping in slave dwellings alone, I found it intriguing that my previous sleepover alone was at Fort Snelling in Minnesota, the place where Harriet and Dred Scott were enslaved. Now, I was here in St. Louis, sleeping alone in the city where Dred and Harriet Scott employed the legal system to seek their freedom. 

The culminating event was a Slave Dwelling Project presentation at Florissant Valley Branch of the St. Louis County Library.

Conclusion

In the planning stage for the St. Louis trip, my hosts and I were excited about the opportunity to reach many people with the message of the chattel slavery that once gripped this nation. Although we didn’t reach the desired audience numbers, we reached some quality people who are now more aware of the need to preserve, interpret, maintain and sustain extant slave dwellings.

In my travels, I encounter many historic sites with histories that they disseminate to their visiting public. Some of these sites are not forthcoming about their roles in condoning the atrocities of this nation. Slavery was one of those many atrocities. St. Louis, Missouri was just another step in the Slave Dwelling Project connecting the dots to the chattel slavery that existed in the United States.

Rest in Peace, Dred and Harriet Scott

Mildred Rias

The Association of African Ancestored Researchers of St. Louis was thrilled to have Joseph McGill come to St. Louis from September 19-September 22. The weather cooperated, for the most part.

We started Wednesday evening with a Meet and Greet in the Hearth Room, at the Hawken House, of the Webster Groves Historical Society. Brothers Samuel and Jacob Hawken (St. Louis) built the Hawken rifle that was used on the prairies and in the Rocky Mountains of the United States during the early frontier days. The Hawken brothers enslaved people who built some of the buildings on the property.

The evening was filled with warm and humorous story sharing of where and when we grew up, rules and regulations our parents had, to what “school you went to?” (this is apparently a St. Louis thing) The heart of the evening was dedicated to our enslaved ancestors and what they must have gone through and why this project is so important.  One person that was there described it as “a very informative and intimate evening!”

On Thursday, Joseph was at the Ulysses S. Grant National Historic site to participate in their program which had over 500 school children listening to him and others. But the highlight for many was in the evening (this is what I’ve been told several times) was at the First Missouri State Capital Historic site (St. Charles, MO) where both Joseph and Marvin A. Greer wowed the crowd. I had the pleasure of assisting Marvin with prepping the ingredients for the gumbo. Open fire, cast iron pots, the whole nine yards-those pots were HEAVY! Marvin and I shared stories of family, traditions, and foods we grew up eating and ones that our families prepared for special occasions.

But the highlight of the evening ( I have been told many times since the program) was speaking one-on-one with Joseph and Marvin, and yes, partaking of the gumbo! But the gumbo was secondary to the conversation and the questions answered! My worst moment was when it got dark and the mosquito’s discovered me! I’m sure they bothered other people, but I was their number one target-even with the bug spray on!

On Friday morning we were at Harris-Stowe State University (HBCU) with a small but attentive audience.

That evening other members of our association joined Joseph at the Robert Campbell House Museum where the tour given was tailor-made for our group. We learned of an enslaved woman named Eliza that lived and worked in this house. She had a husband, she had children and was given her freedom but stayed in touch with the family even borrowing money from Robert Campbell. That peaked our interest as to what her relationship was to this family? Was she the enslaver’s wife’s sister? Was she the enslaver’s child? Or was she the child of one of his brothers? The more we learned about Eliza the more we wanted to know. But we did learn that she does have living descents in Kansas City, MO. I plan on visiting the Campbell House Museum again in the future and looking through the numerous records housed there to see what else I can learn about Eliza.

As the tour ended we (Sarah, Beverly, Bernice and I) left Joseph to enjoy his sleepover by himself.

Saturday’s presentation was held at the Florissant Valley Branch of the St. Louis County Library. It was revealing, educational and very serious. What I noticed was that each time Joseph did the presentation he managed to add another twist! Which meant I learned something new each time I listened to the presentation. And as I looked around the room at the faces of the attendees I could see the look of wonder, curiosity, and even puzzlement before they raised their hand to ask a question.

This was an awesome four days of learning and sharing and more learning and more sharing. For me, the best part was having those one-on-one conversations with Joseph or when it was the really small groups.

As a librarian, when I travel, I will automatically gravitate towards books and bookshelves. This is the same for Joseph. At the Black World Griot Museum, Joseph gravitated towards the slave cabin housed there. There was a twinkle in his eye and he asked, “can I touch it?” The smile on his face- what else can I say?

We have received many, many, many positive comments and people are asking when will he be back because they know of other dwellings where enslaved people lived that just might allow him another sleepover of two!

Looking forward to next year…?