Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum
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To Tell the True Story
Research has revealed that all was known about Archer Alexander. My goal is to tell the true story of this unknown American hero…
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THREE NEW SITES IN ST. LOUIS
There are now five sites in St. Louis Missouri that are part of the National Park Service National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom…
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The untold story of an American hero
Archer Alexander, a freedom seeker enslaved in St. Charles, Missouri, was first captured in February 1863 when sixteen men made their attempt for freedom at Howell’s Ferry on the Missouri River. Running for his life, after overhearing his enslaver Richard Pitman, and other area men, plotting to destroy a vital railroad bridge nearby, he had…
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Only African American High School
For over half of a century, this was the only African American High School available in St. Charles County. Students came from as far as Wentzville. This is a very special place that needs to be understood, recalled, and preserved.
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DIGGING DEEPER…
Today’s historians need to dig deeper into the history that’s being told. Its time to stop relying on stories as they have been told for over 100 years…
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Archer Alexander’s Flight to Freedom
Caught up in Missouri’s conflict during the Civil War, Archer Alexander would inform the Union Troops of the impending collapse of a nearby railroad bridge. His heroism would save hundreds of lives and the vital link for the military; but endanger the life of himself and his family. ..
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Freedom comes to Missouri
On this date, January 11, 1865, Missouri declared “All men are born free and independent and have certain inherent rights; among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is therefore, declared, that slavery and involuntary servitude shall cease to exist in Missouri”
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Upcoming events on September 24th
Originally posted on ARCHER ALEXANDER: Imagine yourself trapped between two hostile forces during the Civil War in Missouri. Caught in this huge conflict the enslaved Archer Alexander would earn his freedom, because of his brave act at the Peruque Creek bridge in St. Charles County. When he learned of his enslaver’s plot to destroy the…
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Don’t lose those precious photos
Get the water-logged paper and photos into a freezer immediately. The freezing process not only stops the mold that begins to grow and damage the items but also draws the moisture out of it as it works as a dehydrator. I was able to salvage everything except for…
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Archer Alexander
What would you do? Imagine yourself enslaved in a state that is caught between two hostile forces. On a cold winter’s night in Missouri in January 1863, Archer Alexander overheard his enslaver Richard Pitman holding a secret meeting in the back room of the local Postmaster and storeowner James Naylor, in his mercantile on the…
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News
Missouri Historical Society recently shared the story of Archer Alexander American Hero on their History Happens Here blog…
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Lincoln
Cordelia Ray, an African American poet would put her feelings into words with her poem Lincoln, at the dedication of the Emancipation Monument on April 14, 1876…
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What Makes a Hero
Archer overheard the area men talking about how the work was going on the railroad bridge. Any day now, with the weight of the next Northern Missouri engine bearing down and over that steep gorge filled by Peruque Creek, their mission would be accomplished. They had been stealthily working at sawing the wooden timbers. And,…
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Abolitionist William Greenleaf Eliot
On January 11, 1865 William G. Eliot was definitely an abolitionist and had addressed the issue of freedom not only for Archer Alexander but for every enslaved person in the State of Missouri.
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What is an Abolitionist?
The Universities Studying Slavery (USS) consortium, created and led by the University of Virginia, represents a multi-institutional collaboration focused on sharing best practices and guiding principles about truth-telling projects addressing human bondage and racism in institutional histories.
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March 30, 1863
On March 30, 1863, Eliot would address a letter to Archer’s owner Richard H. Pitman asking to purchase him, as he wanted to see Archer Alexander emancipated. In his book, The Story of Archer Alexander, Eliot would later write …
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Getting it right
I share the hard stories. I love telling difficult stories. But lately its’ become harder to tell them.
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The Untold Story
On April 14, 1876, a 70-year-old black man named Archer Alexander, would be immortalized when he was chosen to be the face that represented “slavery” on the Freedom Memorial in our Nation’s Capitol. Lincoln was the very man who had given him freedom… On Tuesday, January 18, 2022, the Lincoln Group of the District of…
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Encyclopedia Virginia
Archer Alexander’s story is important not only to the fabric of Virginia’s history, but it stretches across America. A man born enslaved in Virginia, who became a hero in Missouri’s Civil War conflict, was unknown in our Nation’s capital. There Archer Alexander rises before President Abraham Lincoln, his emancipator. The Emancipation Monument which was the…
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The Last Fugitive Slave
In this talk, I wanted to share Archey’s heroic act reporting the treason of his owner, and his Confederate neighbors to the Union Home Guards stationed at Peruque Creek bridge in Missouri.
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Archer Alexander – Missouri’s last fugitive slave
The CIVIL WAR ROUND TABLE of the District of Columbia will host speaker and public historian Dorris Keeven-Franke, of Saint Charles, Missouri at their September 28, 2021 Zoom Meeting. The free Zoom lecture begins at 8pm Eastern Time/7pm Central Time.The Lecture is free and open to the public.
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Historic Main Street Tour receives Award
The Missouri Alliance for Historic Preservation 2021 Honor Awards Ceremony recognizes achievements made in the field of Historic Preservation around the state, and I was thrilled to see the Special Business District Commission of the City of Saint Charles Missouri receive the Overby Award for its Historic Main Street Tour. Click here to read the…
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Best Friends
Things are not always as they appear. Let us not judge actions in history against today’s standards,..
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Freedom
Shrouded in myth and mystery, like a secret organization, there are few records to document the stories of the “conductors” and the “stations” known as the Underground Railroad.
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The 13th Amendment
Congress passed the 13th Amendment on January 31, 1865. It read “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”.
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History – We All Have It
I recently completed extensive research on the 150 historic properties that line St. Charles Main Street, the most famous Main Street of Missouri.
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The first Thanksgiving
That first Thanksgiving celebration was not in Plymouth, Massachusetts. While the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags did indeed share a harvest feast in fall 1621, and early colonial leaders did declare days of thanksgiving when we were supposed to give our thanks for continued life. Today we celebrate Thanksgiving because of the crisis that we call…
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A Veterans Salute
According to family legend this Revolutionary War Veteran heard the first reading of the Declaration of Independence.
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Elijah Lovejoy
The mob scaled the building and was about to set fire to the warehouse when Lovejoy was shot five times and killed while defending his press and his right to publish his thoughts on the abolition of slavery. The mob overran the warehouse and threw his press into the Mississippi River.
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Stand Up for our Ancestors
It is time we stop those who do not know our history, from removing it. This memorial, shares in the context of history the appreciation felt by the formerly enslaved; and is the first and only monument in our Nation’s capital funded entirely by African Americans.
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Save the Emancipation Memorial in DC
It is said that those that do not know their history, are doomed to repeat it. Let us all rise up, by learning the truth of our history. Our ancestors, fought side by side to put an end to slavery. There are those of us that are willing to stand side by side, to once…
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The Eyes of That Time
That simple bronze monument, with two figures, a tall white man, and a black man rising on one knee, alongside him. The first ever to include a black person in our Nation’s Capital. It would share that man, with the Emancipation Proclamation at his elbow, leaning benevolently over a slave who had broken his own…
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Black Lives Matter
In January, of 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation “there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except in punishment of crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; and all persons held to service or labor as slaves are hereby declared free.” Under Lincoln’s direction, hundreds of thousands of Union soldiers…
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Emancipation Memorial
Boston’s copy was placed there as a tribute to the people of Boston by its sculptor Thomas Ball, who was born there. That is what people of America saw when they visited your statue in 1876.
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NEVER SAY NEVER
In 2018 a descendant of Archer Alexander, Keith Winstead, contacted professional Genealogist and author, Dorris Keeven-Franke, looking for help. Research has led to discoveries not previously known, which Keeven-Franke will be sharing in her next book ‘Archer Alexander, the Untold Story’. At 11 am CST, on Wednesday, May 13, 2020, Winstead and Keeven-Franke will be…
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Emancipation Memorial
Today marks the 144th Anniversary of the dedication of the Emancipation Memorial a bronze group which “represents President Lincoln in the act of emancipating a negro slave who kneels at his feet to receive the benediction, but whose hand has grasped the chain as if in the act of breaking it, indicated the historical fact…
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Tomorrow’s history is Today
Tomorrow’s history is today. Now, we are all together, living in an historic time period that will be written for centuries I am sure. What are you doing to save and share your story?
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March 30, 1863
In 1885, William Greenleaf Eliot, the grandfather of poet T.S. Eliot had published THE STORY OF ARCHER ALEXANDER FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM March 30, 1863, which is what Dr. Henry Louis Gates would call a “slave narrative”. Eliot, the founder of Washington University in St. Louis Missouri, and a young minister who had brought the…
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Acknowledgement
Its time we acknowledge this history. Its time we tell these stories and remind everyone that the enslaved cooked the meals, fixed the broken axle on the wagon, put in the crops, and built the houses. Its time we understand that the building of America did not happen in a vacuum, that these people were…
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Ask the question
To understand the stories, one has to look at the times in which someone was living. Not just within a building at an address, but to consider their dreams, their failures and the time in which they lived.
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Archer Alexander
The Story of Archer Alexander from Slavery to Freedom March 30, 1863 by William G. Eliot, a member of the Western Sanitary Commission St. Louis was published by Cupples, Upham and Company, Old Corner Bookstore in 1885 in Boston Massachusetts. Eliot shares the life of a former slave from Virginia, brought to Missouri, whose brave…
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House Bill 1851
The Missouri Humanities Council is asking everyone to show your support for Missouri’s German heritage! Tell Governor Nixon to sign HB 1851! Use the link below to contact the Constituent Services division of the Office of Missouri Governor Jay Nixo
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Plans for a new memorial that is long overdue…
In 1876, he was the unidentified freedom seeker on the only memorial raised by the formerly enslaved people, for President Abraham Lincoln in Washington DC. Four years later, he was buried in an unknown grave in the common lots in a St. Louis cemetery. Now this American hero will receive the recognition he deserves….
Dorris Keeven Franke 