Black-and-white scan of a historical printed text discussing a Missouri court case involving slavery in the Indian Territory, describing an enslaved man who escaped to Mexico and a subsequent lawsuit over his value.
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John M. Olin Library, Room 142 & Ginkgo Reading Room

Resistance & Underground Railroads to Mexican Spaces

Roda, a nineteen-year-old Black woman fled her Missouri enslaver in 1855. The distance to reach the Canadian border from where she was held enslaved in Johnston County, Missouri was equal to the distance to the Mexican border —roughly about 950 miles. Roda made her way towards Mexico. At the time, slaveholders and slave hunters had no legal right to pursue Black Americans who reached Mexico because that Republic’s government, from the 1830s to the 1850s profusely refused to sign any treaty for the extradition of “runaway slaves” already living free in the country. Like Roda, countless women, men, and children enslaved across Missouri pursued freedom across various Mexican spaces, from Texas to California.

“Even the Slaves from the Upper Part of Missouri Are Taking the Fever”: Resistance & Underground Railroads to Mexican Spaces will highlight these hidden histories and document the freedom journeys from Missouri to Mexican geographies. Related materials from the Julian Edison Department of Special Collections will be on display before and after the lecture. Refreshments will be served after the lecture.

Free and open to all. Registration requested, but not required.

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Schedule of Events

  • 5:00 pm – 5:30 pm: Exhibition viewing and items on display
  • 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm: Lecture in Olin Library, Room 142
  • 6:30 pm – 7:00 pm: Refreshments in the Ginkgo Reading Room and additional viewing time

Speaker Bio

Headshot of María Esther Hammack

María Esther Hammack is a Mexican scholar whose work bridges the histories of abolition & Black liberation that shaped North America. She is currently Co-PI of a Mellon Foundation Grant centered on empowering AfroAmerican, AfroIndigenous, and AfroMexican descendant communities recover and reclaim their ancestors’ stories of liberation. Maria is Assistant Professor of African American History at The Ohio State University.

Co-sponsored by the WashU & Slavery Project, Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Equity (CRE2), and WashU Libraries.