African American Experience in Missouri Lecture Series

Lea Vandervelde discusses her most recent book, Redemption Songs: Suing for Freedom before Dred Scott, a groundbreaking study of more than 300 freedom suits in St. Louis. Through the careful evaluation of 12 cases, the book offers insights into the practice of slavery and the lives of those enslaved in Missouri.

Walter Johnson, a professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, uses Dred Scott's personal struggle for freedom and the controversial outcome of his US Supreme Court case as a lens to help illuminate the central role of St. Louis in the imperialist and racial capitalist history of the United States.

Martha S. Jones, Arthur F. Thurnau professor at the University of Michigan, shares the deeply powerful and very tragic story of Celia, who was purchased by a local man in Callaway County and suffered tremendously for years before she eventually stood up for her basic human right to decide her own fate.

Diane Mutti Burke, author of On Slavery’s Border: Missouri’s Small-Slaveholding Households, examines the lives of African-Americans who were enslaved in Mid-Missouri. The small-scale system of slavery practiced in the region created living and working conditions that compromised the strength of enslaved families and communities and increased the possibilities for physical and psychological abuse, yet, at the same time, enhanced opportunities to resist.