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![]() Missouri State Flag |
Centered on red, white and blue fields is the Missouri state seal. It is encircled by a blue band with twenty-four stars representing the number of states in 1821. The stars in the inner circle have the same meaning. Two huge grizzly bears support the circular shield in the center which has three parts. |
Missouri State Seal![]()
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![]() 4th Missouri |
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Background: Slavery in Missouri
Slavery was not a "Southern" problem alone. Many northern states phased out slavery as late as the 1830s, and states such as Delaware and New Jersey still had slave-owning residents as late as 1860. On a local level, residents of Illinois owned slaves (under long-term indenture agreements of 40 years or longer) during the period of the Dred Scott trials, and a special provision in the Illinois constitution allowed slaves to work in the salt mines across the Mississippi from St. Louis as long as they were not held there for over one year at a stretch. Many people in southern Illinois supported slavery. No slaves in the St. Louis area picked cotton however, and few worked in farm fields. Most worked as stevedores and draymen on the riverfront, on riverboats, in the lead and salt mines, as handymen, janitors and porters (like Dred Scott), and as maids, nannies, and laundresses (like Harriet Scott). |
St Luis Court House |
Civil War State Battle Maps
American Civil War Exhibits
American Civil War Timeline
Campaigns of the Civil War
Civil War Ships and Naval Battles
Civil War Picture Album
Women in the Civil War
Sources:
U.S. National Park Service
U.S. Library of Congress
Federal Citizen.