Tag: slavery

A New Life for a Historic Building

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The stately Old Courthouse has stood on its site in Gateway Arch National Park for nearly 200 years.  Its courtrooms have been witness to some of the most important court cases in American history, including suits by enslaved African Americans seeking their freedom, and challenges to women’s right to vote.

But over the decades, the imposing building in downtown St. Louis has been in need of serious renovations, both to update its structural integrity and security, and to ensure accessibility for all visitors.  There was also a need to substantially update the building’s exhibits to better explain the stories that unfolded within its walls.

The Old Courthouse is now closed until these renovations are complete.  But let’s take a sneak peek of the fascinating exhibits now in the works for the four exhibit galleries.

Northeast Gallery: Dred and Harriet Scott – Focuses on the Scott family’s fight for freedom, which began in the Old Courthouse, and how the legal and political environment at the time culminated in the infamous U.S. Supreme Court Decision. The exhibit gallery also reflects on the legacy and relevancy of their case today.

Northwest Gallery: Pathways to Freedom – Explores African American life in St. Louis: slavery, the tortured legacy of enslaved individuals seeking freedom, post-Civil War civil rights, and more.

Southeast Gallery: Designed for Justice – Highlights the architectural features of the courthouse and the spirit of innovation of its architects, designers, builders, and craftsmen.

Southwest Gallery: See You in Court – Focuses on the importance of courts in our society, our legal structure, and the daily activities in the courthouse from 1839 to 1930. Visitors will be able to experience an 1850s courtroom and re-enact mock trials.  These will further their understanding of how our court system allows us to settle disputes peacefully and provides a framework for how our society functions.

The Old Courthouse renovations are jointly funded by the National Park Service and the Gateway Arch Park Foundation. 

A Spotlight on Slavery in St. Louis

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The institution of slavery afflicted most major U.S. cities, and St. Louis was no exception.  Yet most modern-day St. Louisans aren’t aware of the many stories of heartbreak and hope that stemmed from the local slave trade.  The historians at Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site have created a new exhibit to address this knowledge gap.

Let’s take a peek at the exhibit.

What do Dred and Harriet Scott, Lucy Delaney, and Elizabeth Keckley have in common? They were all enslaved African Americans in St. Louis who were renowned for their battles for freedom.  They also feature prominently in the new Slavery in St. Louis exhibit now on display at the visitor center at Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site.  

A team of local historians and educators – led by park staff members Nick Sacco and Gregory Carr –carefully selected exhibit stories that focus not only on slavery but on freedom.  Nine exhibit panels are featured along with artifacts from the park’s museum collections. These explore the personal stories of notable individuals, such as the Scotts, as well as Ulysses S. Grant’s relationship to slavery. Additionally, the exhibit examines what life was like for enslaved people living in St. Louis.

Contributors to this exhibit include:

  • Lynne Jackson
  • Cicely Hunter
  • Ashley Lock
  • Corinne Mason
  • Katrina Moore
  • Vynetta Morrow
  • Robin Produie
  • Maria Russel
  • Kelly Schmidt
  • Jeff Smith
  • Joe Thurman
  • Jamilah Whiteside
  • Liz Wolfson

Make sure to visit the park and check out Slavery in St. Louis soon, as this temporary exhibit will eventually hit the road to be displayed at other institutions.

The Paradox of Thomas Jefferson

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How many superlatives can one use to describe Thomas Jefferson?  First and foremost, he was a Founding Father whose defense of democracy and individual rights motivated American colonists to break away from Britain and form a new nation.  As principal author of the Declaration of Independence, he inspired human rights movements around the world with his assertion that “all men are created equal” and that they had a right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”   

Jefferson was also the first American Secretary of State, the second vice-president, and the third president.  During his presidential term, he peacefully negotiated the purchase from France of 827,987 square miles of the continent – known as the Louisiana Purchase – doubling the size of the U.S.  And he commissioned Meriwether Lewis and George Clark to lead their Corps of Discovery on their ambitious and successful two-year exploration of the newly acquired territory.  

Diplomat, statesman, lawyer, architect, inventor, philosopher, and plantation owner – there seems no end to the accomplishments of this 19th century figure.  Yet Thomas Jefferson was also a man of contradictions. 

Though he often called slavery an “abominable crime” and a “moral depravity,” he was a lifelong slaveholder who used slave labor for his household, plantation, and workshops. Over the course of his life, he owned more than 600 enslaved African Americans, eventually freeing only 10 of them, including the children of his household slave Sally Hemmings, with whom he had a longtime affair.   

Jefferson also held conflicting views on Native Americans.  On the one hand, he refuted the idea that Indigenous people were an inferior race, asserting that they were “equal in body and mind” to people of European descent.  Yet as president, he adopted an assimilation policy toward American Indians known as his “civilization program” and advocated for policies that called for the removal of Indians from their homelands. 

Jefferson’s views on religion, like everything else about him, were complex. He was a governing member of his local Episcopal Church, yet he came to believe Jesus was an important philosopher but not the son of God.  Jefferson’s religious views were nevertheless highly influential.  He reacted strongly against the laws of Virginia Colony, for instance, which allowed only Anglicans to hold public office. These laws prompted Jefferson to write the Statute of Religious Freedom for Virginia, ideas later incorporated into the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution. 

Jefferson’s relationship to money was also complicated. He was wealthy most of his life, partly due to inheritances of slaves, land, and livestock from his own father and his first wife Martha’s father.  He lived a lavish lifestyle at Monticello, the estate he built on a Virginia hilltop, spending large sums on construction projects, furnishings, and décor.  At the end of his life, however, Jefferson was more than $100,000 in debt (about $2 million today) and was forced to sell his personal library to the government. It became the nucleus of the Library of Congress.  

Overall, the legacy of Thomas Jefferson is complex and full of contradictions. Neither a true hero nor a villain, he was simply a brilliant but complicated human being. Through both his successes and shortcomings, it cannot be denied that Thomas Jefferson permanently altered the course of American history. 

Meet the New Leader at Gateway Arch National Park

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Gateway Arch National Park has a new superintendent.  Jeremy Sweat, a 15-year veteran of the National Park Service, took over the job late last year.  He oversees operations not only for the Gateway Arch but also for Ste. Genevieve National Historical Park.

Sweat has a background in resource management and policy at the park, regional and national levels, and has experience working with non-profit partners, with other agencies, and with local communities.  JNPA is excited to be working with him.

We recently caught up with Jeremy Sweat to learn a little more about him.

Why did you start working for the National Park Service?   

My first experience working in a national park was as an undergrad archeological field school student at Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 2004. The field school was a partnership between the University of Tennessee and the NPS, so we got to live and work in the park for the summer. I enjoyed it so much that I returned to the Smokies in 2005 as a graduate teaching assistant to supervise the field school. That winter the park archeologist encouraged me to apply for a seasonal position as an archeological technician and I was hired in the summer of 2006 to conduct backcountry archeological surveys. After that first season, I fell in love with the mission and the people, and never left the NPS.

Credit: Debbie Franke

What is particularly special about Gateway Arch National Park, or why should someone visit? 

Aside from the incredible local and regional pride that the park inspires, one of my favorite things about Gateway Arch National Park is how relevant the park’s story is to America today. The Arch helps to tell the story of the European American settlement of the west, which for some people meant new opportunities and greater freedom, while for other people, it meant the loss of rights, lands, and freedom. The Old Courthouse is a place where people fought for racial equality, women’s rights, and voting rights during the 19th century. Telling these complicated, challenging stories gives our visitors the opportunity to connect that history with many of the challenges and conversations that are still happening in America today.  

What’s your favorite part of the job, or what do you hope to accomplish at Gateway Arch National Park?  

My favorite part of the job is seeing people enjoy the park. Each time I look out my window and see families enjoying the Arch grounds, or when I walk through the museum and see children learning about history, it reminds me why I joined the NPS.

What kinds of careers are available in the Park Service?

Honestly, it would be easier to make a list of what careers are not available in the NPS. If you look at the 423 sites that make up the national park system, there are opportunities for nearly every kind of skill and profession. Everyone knows that we hire park rangers, but we also have jobs for scientists, plumbers, law enforcement officers, engineers, carpenters, lifeguards, boat captains, arborists, livestock supervisors, scuba divers, veterinarians, accountants, and more. I encourage anyone who is interested in working for the NPS to learn more about how their skills might be needed in a park or office around the country. 

What’s your favorite activity to do at the park?

I moved here in the middle of winter, so now that it is getting warmer, I enjoy just being out in the park on sunny days. It’s nice to bike through the park on my way home from work and see so many people from the local community, and from around the country and world, here enjoying this place.

The park’s best kept secret is…?

If I told you, it wouldn’t be a well-kept secret, would it? 

How Many National Park Sites Have YOU Visited?

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The National Park Service system currently includes 423 sites throughout the United States and its territories.  These range from national monuments and battlefields to national historic sites and recreation areas to national rivers and seashores. 

Don’t feel bad if you haven’t visited the majority of these places (most of us haven’t!). But luckily, National Park Week is just around the corner – a perfect time to add to your NPS “life list.”

National Park Week is an annual celebration jointly hosted by the National Park Service and the National Park Foundation to encourage everyone to discover our nation’s diverse historic, natural, and cultural treasures.  This year, the week runs from April 16 through 24.  Parks across the country will host a variety of special programs, events, and digital experiences, including National Junior Ranger Day for kids on Saturday April 23.  You can find out more about programs and themes you might be interested in by going here.  

Another bonus for park visitors during National Park Week – entrance fees are waived at all parks on Saturday April 16.  (Other 2022 free fee days can be found here).  Luckily, there are never entry fees at JNPA’s partner parks but each of them would be glad to see you in April, or any time!

If you’re planning to visit any of the 63 parks that have “national park” in their name, you’ll want a copy of National Geographic’s national park guide as well as the Passport to Your National Parks, which not only contains park information but allows you to collect the passport stamps from every park you visit. 

The Legacy of the Dred Scott Decision

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The road to freedom from slavery was a long one for Dred and Harriet Scott.  Just over 170 years ago, on March 22, 1852, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that enslaved people entering a free territory were not automatically free, delivering a blow to the hopes and dreams of the Missouri couple. While this was not the end of the Scotts’ pursuit for freedom, this blight on Missouri history was not corrected for over a century.

Dred Scott was born in Virginia sometime around 1799. He was enslaved by the Blow family, who moved him to Alabama and then Missouri. He was then sold to an army surgeon, Dr. John Emerson, who took him to Illinois, a free state, and then Fort Snelling, Wisconsin, a free territory. At Fort Snelling, Dred met and married Harriet Robinson, an enslaved woman whose owner transferred ownership of Harriet to Dr. Emerson, who then brought the couple back to St. Louis.

In 1846, the Scotts sued for their freedom at the Old Courthouse in St. Louis on the grounds that they had lived in a free territory, and Missouri had been known to follow the legal precedent of “once free, always free.” However, the Scotts lost their case on a technicality and began a decade of litigation that would lead to unfavorable rulings in both the Missouri Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court.

The final decision from the United States Supreme Court in March 1857 ruled that Black people, whether free or enslaved, were not United States citizens and therefore had no right to sue in federal court. The court also ruled that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional, and that Congress did not have the authority to prohibit slavery in territories. This outraged abolitionists and is thought to have hastened the onset of the Civil War.

Dred Scott’s “free negro bond.” Credit: Missouri Historical Society

The Scotts did eventually gain their freedom later in 1857, after the son of Dred’s original enslaver purchased and subsequently emancipated their family. Sadly, Dred Scott passed away the following year from tuberculosis.

To watch a dramatic re-enactment of a conversation between Dred and Harriet Scott, you can view the short video A Bid for Freedom.  JNPA helped produce this video for Gateway Arch National Park.

It was not until 2021 that the Missouri State Legislature finally passed House Concurrent Resolution 4, formally denouncing the Dred Scott decision. JNPA Board Member Lynne Jackson — Dred and Harriet Scott’s great-great granddaughter — is the President and Founder of the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation. She said:

“We started seriously inquiring about a renunciation of the 1852 Dred Scott decision in 2013 and hoped something along that order would be in the Missouri time capsule in 2015. The next serious push was in 2018 when we came close to a senate vote, but time ran out. We are very pleased at the bi-partisan and unanimous votes by the MO State Legislature in 2021.”

The Dred Scott Heritage Foundation continues the work of recognizing the Scott Family’s place in history both at the Old Courthouse in Gateway Arch National Park and through efforts to construct an educational memorial at Dred Scott’s gravesite in St. Louis’ Calvary Cemetery.