The Emancipation Memorial, also known as the Freedmen’s Emancipation Group and as the Freedom Memorial, was erected in 1876, by the formerly enslaved, and freedom seekers, to “the best friend the colored people ever had” President Abraham Lincoln. Inspired by Charlotte Scott, who gave her first $5 ever earned in freedom, funds were held in trust by the Western Sanitary Commission of St. Louis, Missouri, a private non-profit who had provided hospitals, nurses and other assistance to the Union Army, working closely with the U.S. Colored Troops. The man with Lincoln is freedom seeker Archer Alexander, who after overhearing his enslaver and other Confederates, planning to destroy a vital link for the Union Army, risked his life to inform the Union Troops of the impending danger at the Peruque Creek railroad bridge near his home in St. Charles County Missouri. In February 1863, this man would lead sixteen other men towards freedom in St. Louis, using the Underground Railroad. He was given protection in the home of a member of the Western Sanitary Commission, Rev. William Greenleaf Eliot, in St. Louis. In September of 1863, Archer Alexander was emancipated and given freedom for his “important services to the United States military forces during the Civil War”.
At about the age of 12, Archer Alexander was separated from his father, who was sold south because he was considered too uppity and loved to recite the Declaration of Independence. In 1829, Alexander and his young wife, Louisa were taken by their enslaver, to the slave state of Missouri, to live in the Dardenne community, just west of Saint Charles. During that journey, their newborn son Wesley (1829-1888), was left behind in Louisville Kentucky.[i] In Missouri, he was put to work in the brickyards of St. Louis, by his enslaver James Alexander (1789-1835), who died in 1835, leaving a will that gave firm instructions that his enslaved property was not to be sold but leased; with the funds used for the support of his four orphaned children. Archer Alexander was a proficient carpenter and stone and brick mason and would lead the area’s enslaved to build many of the area’s homes. The decades of the 1840s and ‘50s would see a large influx of German immigrants, who would bring their strong abolitionist views to the area, causing many conflicts. By the beginning of the Civil War, we know that Alexander has become the property of Richard H. Pitman (1830-1893) of nearby Cottleville, while his wife Louisa (c1810-1865), and some of their ten children, are enslaved nearby at the home of James Naylor (1805-1873), the local Postmaster and mercantile owner. It is there that Alexander overhears, a secret meeting of the area’s secessionist and Confederate sympathizers, plotting to destroy the nearby railroad bridge.
The bridge was guarded, by troops of Missouri’s Home Guards, known as Krekel’s Dutch, under the command of German-born Lt. Arnold Krekel (1815-1888). Two blockhouses had been erected, at both on the east end and the west side where the wooden trestle passed over a huge gorge with the Peruque Creek flowing at the bottom. Many of Missouri’s railroad bridges had been attacked and some had been destroyed by Confederate guerillas already. The North Missouri railroad bridge was a vital link for the Union Army, sending troops, support, and mail westward. The fort would also be the site of a Contraband camp and used for the enlistment of freedom seekers like Martin Boyd (826-1912)[ii], who would join the U.S. Colored Troops in 1864.
Archer Alexander realizing the importance of what he had overheard, risked his life to inform those troops of the impending danger. Without hesitation or a plan, he made his way on a cold winter night to the Union fort, about five miles away. Most of the soldiers stationed there were German-born immigrants, who knew him well, as Alexander had worked with them side by side, helping them build their homes. They understood, believed, and trusted him and the information he was giving them.
Unfortunately, it was not long before the discovery of who had been the informant and had thwarted those plans, really was. The word began to spread, and Alexander was warned that he would be confronted. Knowing what that meant, and if caught he would either be whipped, lynched, or worse yet – sold, he was determined to seek his freedom. Not able to warn Louisa, and extremely worried about what would happen to her as well, he had no choice but to run. He had apparently been given information and directions, because he was soon joined by at least sixteen others also heading to St. Louis, about fifty miles away on the Mississippi River. At about three o’clock in the morning, assisted by a man who kept a boat at nearby Howell’s Ferry, they crossed the Missouri River, heading south from St. Charles County, when they were caught by a local Slave Patrol. These were legally armed groups, providing a service to the local enslavers. Word was sent to their enslavers, about twenty-five miles back, that they would be held at the tavern near the Howell’s Ferry landing, awaiting retrieval. That night though, Alexander would manage to escape his captors once more. Scared, he could watch from a distance the events unfolding at the tavern the next morning. After hiding in the reeds for that day, when night came, he would continue his journey, hiding during the daytime hours, keeping out of sight totally and running during the night. He traveled those last 25 miles, with little to eat, desperate to reach safety. When he reached St. Louis, he made his way to a local butcher, and knew he was safe to admit he was a “runaway”.
Abigail Adams Eliot, wife of a Unitarian minister who was also a founder of Washington University, William Greenleaf Eliot, took Alexander to her home. Eliot was also a member of the Western Sanitary Commission (WSC), an organization that worked closely with the Union Troops, assigned to the Western theater, building hospitals, funding the medical needs, and supplying physicians and nursing staff, totally by private donations. By 1863, they had begun working closely with the U.S. Colored Troops; supplying assistance for freedom seekers using the contraband camps which were established near the Union troops as well.
After reaching Eliot’s home[iii], he shared his story with Eliot, who was then faced with a dilemma, as under Civil law, and under Fugitive Law, he was harboring a fugitive and as such, obligated to return Alexander to Pitman. Instead, he gave him food, and a place to sleep, and hired him to work at his home. The next day, February 28, they would visit the Provost Marshall’s office in St Louis, just doors away from the Western Sanitary Commission’s office, and Eliot would be given a Temporary Order of Protection for Archer Alexander to remain in his custody, for thirty days, while the matter was investigated. Eliot would turn to his friend Barton Bates (1824-1892), son of the U.S. Attorney General and a member of Lincoln’s cabinet, Edward Bates (1793-1869), to act as an intermediary and to negotiate a sale of any price named by Pitman for Alexander. He stated that he wished to purchase him and that he wanted to see Alexander emancipated.
For the next few weeks, Alexander would work hard around the Eliot home, making repairs and laying out gardens. He bonded with Eliot’s children, especially his son Christopher (1856-1945). Then on a warm spring day, shortly before the Temporary Order was about to expire, Alexander was working on plowing the Eliot’s garden, when two men appeared with a wagon, making inquiries. Waiting for Rev. Eliot to depart for Washington University where he was about to teach, they asked Christopher to point out Alexander to them. The young boy pointed, and they instantly attacked Alexander, in front of the child, and the other children’s nanny. They bludgeoned Alexander until he was senseless, then carried him and threw him in their wagon, and left. Christopher was distraught and never forgave himself. Pitman had sent the men, after learning of Alexander’s location from Bates, to retrieve what he considered his legal property.
The men would place Alexander in a holding cell, at the St. Louis City Jail at 6th and Chestnut Street. This was not a jail under any Military jurisdiction, but a dirty, cramped, holding cell that would be used by St. Louis residents, Confederate sympathizers, and slave catchers to await directions or be sold at nearby Lynch’s Slave Pen across from the St. Louis Courthouse. All of this was entirely legal in the eyes of Missouri law. Alexander would awaken, fearing his life was over. However, as soon as Eliot returned home that afternoon, and learned what had happened, he rushed to the Provost Marshall’s office and informed them of the recent events. They in turn would send armed Union officers to the Jail, who were presented with the Marshall’s Order of Protection, now made permanent, who had no choice but to return Alexander to the Marshall. Alexander was returned to Eliot’s custody, to whom he gave his eternal gratitude, saying he knew Eliot would somehow rescue him. Eliot would then see that Alexander was moved to Alton, Illinois, for his own protection and most probably the safety of Eliot’s family as well.
The Order of Protection remained in place until depositions could be taken, and following a military hearing, Alexander was granted freedom through the provisions of Lincoln’s Second Confiscation Act of July 1862, by September 24, 1863. The Second Confiscation Act, directed that if anyone should be found guilty of treason to the United States, he shall have his property confiscated, and likewise his enslaved emancipated. Pitman would be jailed by the Provost Marshall but released after only a month. Alexander would continue to be befriended by Eliot, and reside at his home until his wife Louisa could join him in St. Louis. Alexander paid a German farmer, to smuggle Louisa Alexander and her youngest daughter, using the network to freedom, away from Naylor in December of 1863. Louisa would mysteriously die in 1865, in an event connected to Naylor, and her gravesite remains unknown to this date.
Every member of the Western Sanitary Commission, including President James E. Yeatman (1818-1901) knew Eliot’s friend Archer Alexander and was familiar with his story. There is no doubt that this is why the entire commission would later wish to see Archer Alexander chosen to represent the formerly enslaved man, who is rising and has broken his own chains, on the Emancipation Memorial. They had witnessed firsthand the determination and his resistance to enslavement, and what he was willing to endure to gain his freedom.
In 1865, with the announcement on April 14th of the assassination of President Lincoln, a formerly enslaved woman in Marietta, Ohio named Charlotte Scott donated her first five dollars earned in freedom to begin a drive for a memorial to Lincoln. According to John Mercer Langston, she gave those funds to her employer, asking him “to communicate her proposition to some person whose influence and action might result in the accomplishment of that important design.” [iv] The gift and donation were at once taken to James Yeatman, President of the WSC, and a close friend of William G. Eliot
The Emancipation Memorial is also known as the Freedmen’s Emancipation Group and the Freedom Memorial
During the last years of the war, the WSC worked closely with all leaders of the U.S. Colored Troops to provide supplies to contraband camps and fugitives during the war, in St. Louis, Missouri; Helena, Arkansas; Natchez, Mississippi, and other encampments. Reportedly, it would be because of this that the Natchez troops would immediately donate over $12,000 to the drive for Charlotte Scott’s memorial. And, more importantly, the source of all its funding came entirely from formerly enslaved individuals and freedmen, with most of the funds coming from United States Colored Troops stationed in Natchez, Mississippi. [v] Many of these men and their families, had been helped during and after the war, given food and clothing, medical attention, and other assistance by the Western Sanitary Commission.
A Petition to Congress was presented on March 7, 1867, which read:
“ To the end that the ceremonies shall be such as to worthily represent the sentiments of gratitude felt by the people for the great event to be celebrated; and that the ceremonies may properly express the feelings of affection of the people for the memory of the martyr President, .Abraham Lincoln, and that everyone desiring may have an opportunity of enjoying the exercises, your petitioners humbly beg your honorable bodies to grant, by joint resolution, a general holiday to all persons employed in the several Departments of the Government in this city, on said fourteenth day of April next, and as in duty bound your petitioners will ever pray, &c., &c. On behalf of the Committee of Arrangements., J. M. LANGSTON, JOHN F. COOK, JOHN H. BROOKS, JOHN P. SAMPSON, SOLOMON G. BROWN.
WHEREAS: On the fourteenth day of April next, a statue, secured by the contributions of the Freedmen of the country, to the memory of Abraham Lincoln, late President of the United States, will be unveiled, with appropriate ceremonies, in Lincoln Park, Washington City, District of Columbia…
Originally, the dedication ceremonies for the Freedmen’s Memorial were planned for the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation but instead were scheduled for the anniversary of Lincoln’s assassination. Professor John M. Langston, Chairman of the National Committee of Arrangements presided. The Marine band opened the ceremonies with Hail Columbia. Bishop John M. Brown of the African Methodist Church offered the prayer, and then Hon. J. Henri Burch read the Emancipation Proclamation, which the crowd cheered as if it had just been issued. Then Langston introduced Mr. James Yeatman from the Western Sanitary Commission, who presented the audience with the history of the monument, including the figure that accompanies Lincoln:
He is accordingly represented as exerting his own strength with strained muscles in breaking the chain which had bound him. A far greater degree of dignity and vigor, as well as of historical accuracy, is thus imparted. The original was also changed by introducing, instead of an ideal slave, the figure of a living man – the last slave ever taken up in Missouri under the fugitive slave law, and who was rescued from his captors (who had transcended their legal authority) under the orders of the Provost Marshall of St. Louis. His name was Archer Alexander…[vi]
Next Professor Langston would introduce the most prestigious orator of the day, the Honorable Frederick Douglass, who was received with tremendous applause. He began with:
I warmly congratulate you upon the highly interesting object which has caused you to assemble in such numbers and spirit as you have to-day. This occasion is in some respects remarkable. Wise and thoughtful men of our race, who shall come after us, and study the lessons of our history in the United States, who shall survey the long and dreary space over which we have traveled, who shall count the links in the great chain of events by which we have reached our present position, will make a note of this occasion-they will think of it, and with a sense of manly pride and complacency. I congratulate you also upon the very favorable circumstances in which we meet to-day. They are high, inspiring and uncommon. They lend grace, glory and significance to the object for which we have met. Nowhere else in this great country, with its uncounted towns and cities, uncounted wealth, and immeasurable territory extending from sea to sea, could conditions be found more favorable to the success of this occasion than here. We stand to-day at the national centre to perform something like a national act, an act which is to go into history…”[vii]
While recent movements have urged for the monument to be removed to a museum, many still feel it is much more important for the memorial to be truly seen in the context of its own time, with the dignity and importance of a National Park. Those who first placed the monument, facing the Capitol, wanted those who passed there, to have a daily reminder. Only the progress of time and modern development have changed that. When Pierre L’Enfant submitted his design for the Capital City of Washington to George Washington in 1790, he developed grand avenues, public buildings, and grounds. Many of the parks, medians, circles, squares, and triangles of Capitol Hill Parks evolved from L’Enfant’s original plans.
In addition to being a prestigious address, Capitol Hill is a diverse community known for its historic African American population. In 1976, the Capitol Hill Historic District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and is one of the largest historic districts in the United States. Archer Alexander (1806-1880) was born enslaved in 1806, near Lexington, in Rockbridge County, Virginia. Archer Alexander died in St. Louis, Missouri on December 8, 1880, and his burial location is an unmarked grave, in a common lot of other unidentified gravesites, in St. Peter’s United Church of Christ, in Normandy, Missouri. In September 2023, this freedom seeker’s burial site was added to the National Parks National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listings.
NOTES
[i] Wesley Alexander (1829-1888) is the Great-Great Grandfather of Muhammad Ali (1942-2016). See https://www.stlpr.org/arts/2019-03-19/a-louisville-family-learns-about-their-ties-to-a-st-louis-slave-who-saved-lives#stream/0 National Public Radio/ St. Louis Public Radio, By Chad Davis, published March 19, 2019
[ii] Martin Boyd (1826-1912) is a freedom seeker cited in the National Parks National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, February 2024 listing for the Smith Chapel Cemetery, in Foristell, Missouri.
[iii] William Greenleaf Eliot (1811-1887) was born on August 5, 1811, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and graduated from Harvard in 1831. In 1834, as a Doctor of Divinity, Eliot moved to St. Louis, Missouri, and established the first Unitarian Church, the Church of the Messiah. In 1837, he married Abigail Adams Cranch, the great-niece of Abagail Adams, wife of President John Adams in Washington, D.C. He was co-founder of the educational institution Eliot Seminary, which would later become Washington University.
[iv] Langston, John Mercer, “From the Virginia Plantation to the National Capital”
[v] Fountain, Deborah, “The Civil War and Natchez U, S. Colored Troops
[vi] ________, Inaugural Ceremonies of the Freedmen’s Memorial Monument to Abraham Lincoln, in Washington City, April 14, 1876, Levison & Blythe, Saint Louis, 1876
[vii] ________, Inaugural Ceremonies of the Freedmen’s Memorial Monument to Abraham Lincoln, in Washington City, April 14, 1876, Levison & Blythe, Saint Louis, 1876
ARCHER ALEXANDER 