Explore Missouri's past and prepare for the future through the African American Experience in Missouri lecture series. Launched in 2016, the African American Experience in Missouri series aims to offer the public a new understanding of present-day Missouri by learning about the history of African Americans within the state.
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.