In 1829, a young enslaved man named Archer Alexander was brought to Missouri by his owner. His father had been sold south for being too uppity, and his mother was left behind in Virginia. Property of the Alexander family, there were twenty-five other enslaved persons, who were owned by the McCluer, Alexander, and Wilson families. They settled on land along the Dardenne Creek and the Boone’s Lick Road. Today this where Missouri’s State Hwy K crosses Missouri’s State Hwy N.

Archer Alexander is the ‘face of freedom’ on the Emancipation Monument, dedicated as the Freedom Memorial, a National Monument which is located directly east of the United States Capitol Building in Lincoln Park. The monument was paid for and placed there by formerly enslaved African American people as a memorial to President Abraham Lincoln in appreciation for their freedom. Emblazoned with the word Emancipation, Archer Alexander has broken his own shackles and is rising next Lincoln.