July 13, 2011
Vol 13 No 28
June 10, 2015
Rattling the chains of history
Recipe
11
Sensational seafood on the grill
Around Town
3
School
8
Business
7
Movie
9
Project Backpack offers hope
Submitted photo Dr. Errol Alexander is the author of “The Rattling of the Chains” detailed and engrossing 30-year quest that dives in and out of five different countries that enable Alexander to trace his family history from 1777 to present day.
Author traces colorful family roots throughout the region By Brett Auten You won’t find a more delicate subject in our culture than race. Our region, specifically, has felt the brunt of its weight. When it comes to the complex history of slavery and African-American genealogy, it’s rare that you find a complete picture. As you would expect, there are plenty of untold stories from this era but one that occurred right in our backyard has turned into one of the surprising reads of 2015. Dr. Errol Alexander’s “The Rattling of the Chains” is a detailed and engrossing 30-year quest of research and discovery that dives in and out of five different countries that enable Alexander to trace his family history from 1777 to present day and in doing so, telling the story of Archer Alexander, the last fugitive slave recaptured in Missouri. Professor Alexander is a direct descendant of Archer. “I couldn’t give up,” the 74-year-old Alexander said via a phone interview from his home. “I learned so much. This was a story I had heard all of my life from my family.” Archer Alexander spent most of his years as a slave in the Dardenne Prairie – Cottleville area, probably working on the owner’s tobacco plantations. Archer’s wife, Louisa was a slave who worked at the well-known Naylor Store in Dardenne Prairie. Archer escaped in 1862 after walking five miles to inform the Union Soldiers that the Rebels had cut the timbers on the Peruque Creek Bridge. There was a train full of Union soldiers heading for St. Louis from Jefferson City that would have been derailed without his warning. Locals suspected Archer as the traitor and ordered him to come before an examination committee. During the night, Alexander opted to take his chances on the run rather than face what awaited him. He escaped to St. Louis and began to look for work. One morning, William Greenleaf Eliot’s wife, Abigail, went
to market at the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Market Street and met Archer Alexander, who helped her carry her basket of groceries home. Dr. Eliot, the founder of Washington University and an ancestor of the famed writer T.S. Eliot, offered Archer Alexander paid employment and an official permit from the local law enforcement office and it wasn’t long before Archer earned the affection of the entire Eliot family. William Greenleaf Eliot was strongly opposed to slavery and had declared publicly that he would never return an escaped slave to his or her owner. On January 11, 1865, when all slaves in Missouri were freed, Dr. Eliot helped Archer Alexander reunite with Louisa and their children, and he came back to work on the Eliot’s farm. “It was a true relationship,” Arnold said. “You can’t do one of their stories without the other. He and Archer were very good friends. They went to church together. Eliot had said; Archer Alexander is the finest Christian he had ever met.” Archer was the subject of a book by William Greenleaf Eliot written in 1885. He is also the face of the rising slave in the Freedom Memorial statue located on the capitol grounds in Washington D.C. The statue depicts Abraham Lincoln standing next to the rising figure of a slave breaking the chain of slavery. Don’t be surprised one day when Hollywood jumps on this twofold inspiring story of a man born into slavery to one day become a free man and the one who guided him there. “Rattling the Chains” is a term used when slaves’ descendants try to research their roots. Alexander excels at presenting two portraits of men and their families from different races, education and religious beliefs and gives insight into the African-American experience that all people of any color can learn from. See AUTHOR on page 2
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