This pen-and-ink drawing and watercolor by Henry Byam Martin depicts a slave market in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1833. An inscription on the original reads "Charleston S.C. 4th March 1833 'The land of the free & home of the brave.'"

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Slavery in Missouri, although considered to be “small-scale” was ubiquitous in the region and its harsh racial codes entrenched in the society. Most enslaved people in the territory worked on small hemp and tobacco farms, as domestic workers, or leased as laborers through the slave-hiring market.

Enslaved peoples fought to make lives for themselves and gain their freedom. Some used the law to challenge enslavement. A territorial law, inherited from its time as a Spanish colony, prohibiting the enslavement of American Indians in the territory was used by those who could prove American Indian ancestry in court to gain freedom. Others resisted the violent and dehumanizing effects of slavery by running away to the North, risking their lives to escape the bonds of slavery.

Nevertheless, in the Missouri Territory, enslaved people were seen as valuable commodities. White Missourians, regardless of whether they were slave-owners or not, believed the region’s economy was dependent on slave labor. Deeply pervasive racism ensured that Missourians remained overwhelming pro-slavery.