The following in an essay produced as a joint collaboration between The Trebitch Times and CrimethInc., about the unruly slaves and servants, so called, of George Washington. It was prepared for President’s Day 2018—a holiday disrespectfully placed in the middle of Black History Month. I hope loyal readers will forgive the diversion from regional matters. A
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Late one night, members of the McCutchan Family awoke to the sound of passing wagons and oxen. John McCutchan went to his window and saw the wagons parking in a field next to his house. Shortly afterward, he heard the hushed voices of his slaves in their nearby room. Suspecting trouble, John woke his family,
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Around 1829, 11 families lead by Mother Baltimore left St. Louis, crossed the Mississippi River, and squatted a patch of land. Some of the families had bought their freedom, others were runaways. They called their settlement Freedom Village. The area they lived, the American Bottoms, was rich with fertile soil, trees, wildlife and fish, and
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From a forthcoming history of Missouri slavery and resistance: John had lived his whole life in Missouri, having been born into slavery in Fayette. He never knew his father who had escaped to South America when he was a baby. When John was seven, his mother was sold south after insulting their master, Moses Burton.
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