Historic St. Louis: 250 Years Exploring New Frontiers

A C O L O R F U L C O L O N I A L C A P I T A L
Americans today can appreciate the “modern” racial diversity in eighteenth-century
St. Louis, inhabited by people of many hues, multiple heritages, and mixed bloodlines.
In a 1787 Spanish census, analyzed by historian Peter K. Johnson, the small city contained
896 whites, 188 blacks, and 83 “tan or colored” mixed bloods.
A F R I C A N
A M E R I C A N S
One or more highly-respected and talented black pilots skillfully navigated the boat that
brought Laclede and Chouteau from New Orleans in 1763, and eight years later, their new
settlement had at least 124 African American slaves (74 males, 50 females)—totaling 25
percent of the population. St. Louisans adhered to the 1724 French Code Noir [“Black Code”],
as liberalized by Spanish officials. Those slave laws were more humane than racial policies
in most Anglo-American colonies. Masters were required to feed and clothe their slaves
properly and to care for those who were old, infirm, or sick. Officials encouraged the
Catholic conversion of blacks and enduring slave marriages. It was illegal to split up slave
spouses and their young children in separate sales. Slaves could attain their freedom, after
which they enjoyed the same rights and privileges of other residents. “Slave tutors” were
automatically considered “freemen.”
Seven African Americans were slain and thirteen captured defending St. Louis from
the British-Indian attack in May 1780. By 1800 the town had 269 black slaves and 67 free
blacks, up from 37 in only nine years. Free African Americans included Joseph Neptune;
Esther, a former slave who received a Spanish land grant; and the famous Jeanette Forchet,
who owned a house and farm and married two black men, including Valentin, a gunsmith
and Indian trader.
N A T I V E
A M E R I C A N S
Indians from twenty different cultures, including Osages, Pawnees, Sioux, Omahas,
Mesquakis, and at least one Mohawk, also lived in colonial St. Louis. In 1770 Indians
comprised about 17 percent of the town’s population, with 69 (12 percent) being highlyvalued
household slaves. In the late 1760s and early 1770s, 14 Native American slaves lived
in the Laclede-Chouteau home alone. One of them, Therese, managed Madame Chouteau’s
household for forty-six years before being freed in 1814. According to Johnson, in the
1780s, about 10 percent of European households contained at least one Indian slave, and
at least 15 white men had Indian wives. St. Louisans baptized 103 Native Americans in
the 1770s alone, a third of all Indians baptized there until 1821. Historian Tanis Thorne has
estimated that by 1800, at least one adult in 80 percent of St. Louis households may have
had some Indian ancestry.
As early as 1765, Laclede’s thriving town also
became the mid-continental center of Indian
diplomacy. That coincided with the arrival of
Captain Louis Saint Ange de Bellerive, the last
French commander at Fort de Chartres, who
transferred his flag and the last twenty royal
marines to St. Louis after surrendering that
stone citadel to British troops. A Montreal
native and a close friend of Chief Pontiac, Saint
Ange had vast experience negotiating with
many native nations. As the only French commandant
in St. Louis history, Saint Ange worked
with Laclede to create a hospitable, centrallylocated
site where “red men could walk the
white road” in the “clean earth” of a friendly
village not “dirtied by bloodshed.” In most
years, thirty-two tribes from the Siouan plains,
Caddoan prairies, and Algonquian lakes sent
diplomatic delegations to St. Louis—and stayed
to shop, drink, and dance with residents—
H I S T O R I C S T . L O U I S
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