First Families, Enslaved Families through 1865

Enslaved people were part of St. Louis from its earliest years. During the French and Spanish periods, some area residents were enslavers of people of African and Native ancestry. Slavery continued after St. Louis became part of the United States, and Missouri entered the Union as a slave state in 1821.

Enslaved St. Louisans worked in homes, workshops, farms, and along the riverfront. Some were hired out to other households, but all remained vulnerable to sale and forced separation. Their marriages lacked legal protection, and children inherited the enslaved status of their mothers.

St. Louis also had a growing free Black community. Free people established families, acquired property, and assisted relatives and friends who remained enslaved, although discriminatory laws restricted their movement and activities.

Hundreds of enslaved people filed freedom suits in St. Louis courts. Dred and Harriet Scott began their case here in 1846. These files often contain testimony about family relationships, previous residences, and personal histories found nowhere else.

Researchers may need to search under an enslaver’s name rather than the family’s current surname. Wills, probate inventories, bills of sale, deeds, court cases, church registers, tax records, and newspaper notices can help reconnect separated relatives. Missouri abolished slavery in January 1865, but its effects on families and recordkeeping continued long afterward.