Before we were St. Charles County Missouri, we were St. Charles County in the Missouri Territory. And before that we were Louisiana Territory. We were purchased as part of the Louisiana Purchase by Thomas Jefferson in 1804 from the French. But the French and Spanish had treatied and traded this land for years before that. And yes, before all of that, this was the home to thousands of Native Americans, many of which had previously lived further east. They had been forced west by the settlement in our original colonies, and then the “Far West” which Indiana and Illinois were once called. In other words, this land that we call St. Charles County now, has been home to many people and many cultures in these past 250 years.
In the 1760s, the French and Spanish had started sending explorers, in amongst the Native Americans. Soon French Canadians, who were having difficulties with the British, like we were, started looking for new locations to settle. People like Chouteau and Blanchette. Rivers were the pathways, used by both the Native Americans and the French and Spanish. While all of this was happening here though, America was being born. Based on the principles of Democracy, that we all fought hard for. And while we thought that those battles would never spill over into our territory, we were prepared and yet so happened the battle of San Carlos in St. Louis. By the late 1700s, Americans were looking for new territory to settle, and so came the first waves. Those that came had slaves. Many had come from Virginia, and Kentucky, which had just been carved out of the Commonwealth of Virginia. They were used to living under the Code Noir, the Black Code, which had dictated how they dealt with their property.
The Code Noir regulated the institution of slavery and the rights of all Black subjects–whether free or enslaved–within the French Empire. First issued as an edict under King Louis XIV in 1685, the Code Noir was enforced by French authorities in the Louisiana Territory as the nation expanded its landholdings in what would later become the United States. The Code Noir remained in effect after France ceded the Louisiana Territory to Spain in 1762 and remained on the books until the United States acquired these lands through the Louisiana Purchase of 1803-1804. Parts of the Code Noir would later show up in the Missouri State Constitution after statehood was acheived in 1821. [https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/transcription-of-the-code-noir-the-black-code.htm]
That is why when Missouri finally became a State in 1821, the issue of slavery was handled the exact same way it had been since 1685 under King Louis XIV. In looking back, that’s exactly where we started. And in 1821, it was very common for all of the property owners, to own enslaved property. And as property, they did not have names, they did not know things, as simple as their birthdate. We became a State that was built on the institution of slavery. The first settlers that settled St. Charles County, were people who built their homes with that labor. Whose meals were cooked, cattle were fed, and children were cared for by black people. They were there, and they have been invisible in our history, for way too long. Most of us didn’t learn it in school, and many of our children aren’t learning it today in our schools. We are removing it daily. Its’ time we acknowledge all history. Not just the good or bad, but the ugly as well. That’s how we learn from our mistakes. As Winston Churchill said
“The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.”
History happens. I feel that as a writer, and a historian, its important to include all people and cultures. And, they should be honest and true, which takes research. Sometimes those are stories we don’t want to see or hear. What’s the old saying? The truth hurts. I like to compare “society” to a person. When a person is born, they are a blank slate. Their parents are their first teachers. One of the first words a toddler learns is no. And when they make a mistake, they learn the meaning of no, and they don’t repeat it hopefully. And when they reach school age, a whole new world opens open. And as they learn about that world, if they don’t learn about the mistakes, they won’t know how not to repeat them. I’m still learning, always searching for the truth, the whole story, and to know what really happened. And then I will share it as best I can. The stories shared here are my own.
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ST. CHARLES COUNTY HISTORY 