What became the state of Missouri was initially inhabited by Native Americans and then a host of colonists from Europe.

Originally settled as a French trading post, St. Louis had passed from French to Spanish and back to French rule in the late 1700s. In 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte sold Missouri to the United States as part of the Louisiana Territory purchase (Campbell, 2013, p. 10). But by the time Missouri formed as a state and joined the United States in 1821, the land had been occupied for over a thousand years by native Americans including the “Osages, Missouris, Iowas, and Omahas” (Campbell, 2013, p. 9). So native Americans, French and Spanish colonists, freed and enslaved Black people, and later, English-speaking Americans comprised the diverse population of St. Louis that contributed to its initial economic growth (Smith, 2017, p. 16). 

The Missouri Compromise of 1820 changed Missouri from a free state to a slave state as it entered the Union.

As part of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, however, Missouri entered the United States as a slave state, while the state of Maine entered the United States as a free state to maintain the balance of states allowing slavery and those that did not.

The Missouri Compromise also ensured that slavery was illegal above the 36º 30' in the rest of the Louisiana Territory (“Milestone Documents,” 2022, par. 1). 

St. Louis remained a diverse city.

Despite the system of chattel slavery in Missouri, the diverse population of St. Louis melded due to the city’s long history as an economic hub where various peoples came together to exchange goods and labor (Smith, 2017, p. 20). Campbell found that “relations between the white settlers in St. Louis and the local native tribes remained relatively peaceful until 1828, when the Missouri Governor John Miller announced the official eviction of Native Americans from the state” (2013, p. 11). 

Socio-economic divisions became apparent in the 1830s and 40s.

A cholera outbreak in the 1830s exacerbated the rift between socio-economic classes as those who could afford clean water recovered from the illness while those who drank from infected water became sick and often died.

The Great Fire of 1849 also significantly affected the city, as did the St. Louis Slave Stampede of 1855, where abolitionist Mary Meachum, wife of abolitionist John Berry Meachum, helped 8-9 enslaved people escape. Tragically, all but three escaped slaves were captured, and Mary Meachum was arrested, though her charges were later dropped (“Slave Stampedes on the Southern Borderlands,” House Divided Project, Dickinson College).