In 1763, Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet voyaged down the Mississippi River and became the first Europeans to set foot on the land that would become Missouri.

The French quickly began settling in the region – Ste. Genevieve was founded in 1735 and less than 30 years later Pierre Laclede and his teenage stepson, Auguste Chouteau founded St. Louis. Under French control, the area grew into a thriving frontier society and economy.

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In 1800, shortly after the French Revolution and execution of Louis XVI, the First French Republic, looking to ally with Spain in the Seven Years War against Great Britain, ceded the Louisiana Territory, which included Missouri, to the Spanish Crown. Spain failed to attract many Spanish settlers to the region despite dispensing millions of acres in Spanish land grants meant to entice Spanish Catholics to the region. Thus, the European population of Missouri remained largely French.

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The 130 years of French and Spanish colonial history in Missouri left a complicated legacy of slavery in the region. French settlers, and the Spanish after them, brought enslaved Africans and enslaved Native Americans with them to the area. Enslaved peoples worked in all areas of colonial life including the lead mines and the fur trade. Slavery and the problematic and harsh French and Spanish slave codes became entrenched in the region.