Source Analysis #3: The Slave Trade in St. Louis

This article acknowledges the history of slave trading within St. Louis, it begins with a photograph of Benard Lynch’s “Slave Pen” which is now the site of Ballpark Village. Following the photograph was more information about the historical prominence of the site and what events occurred within it. The article also magnifies the importance of remembering the victims of St. Louis’s Slave Trade along with, the role that the St. Louis County Sheriff of 1843 enacted. In addition, this article celebrates how Representatives of Missouri State in 2021 arranged a memorial to commemorate the city’s enslaved residents who were victims of the slave trade. Lastly, this article ends illustration of an auction of enslaved people near the steps of the St. Louis Courthouse.

This article was created to reach the audience of the National Park Service of St. Louis and address the history of slavery in St. Louis. This article can teach about the history of slave trading in St. Louis while communicating that for many years the lives of enslaved victims in Benard Lynch’s “Slave Pen” went silenced until Missouri State Representatives felt a calling to repair injustice by holding a memorial for the enslaved victims in 2021. What surprised me most about this article was that it didn’t elaborate more upon the “Last Sale of Slaves” painting that Thomas Satterwhite Noble painted in 1865 and what all the illustration depicted.