Declared free

During the Civil War, Missouri's legislative decisions were made by a provisional State Convention. First convened in 1862 to consider secession from the Union (an action rejected), the State Convention convened several more times to wrestle with the question of slavery. Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation declared freedom for enslaved in States of the Rebellion, but not in Missouri. In summer 1863, the Convention adopted a plan of gradual emancipation, designed to prolong the legality of slavery in Missouri, in some form, until 1870.

Reconvened in St. Louis in January 1865, persuasive debate, motivated more by economic development than the immorality of enslavement, turned the tide to end slavery in Missouri. After four years of devastating conflict, with no clear end to the war in sight, the Convention emerged with an ordinance to abolish slavery in Missouri. George C. Thilenius, an advocate for immediate emancipation, represented Cape Girardeau at this assembly.

The Cape Girardeau Weekly Argus newspaper on Jan. 19, 1865, certainly downplayed this revolutionary event. A brief article, headlined "FREE MISSOURI," appeared on page two.

"In the Constitutional Convention on the 11th last; the following ordinance was passed by a vote of sixty-four for to four against it:

"An ordinance abolishing slavery in Missouri: Be it ordained by the People of the State of Missouri in Convention assembled: That hereafter in this State there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude except in punishment of crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted and all persons held to service or labor as slaves are hereby declared free.

George C. Thilenius

"Congratulations from nearly all the free States have been extended to Governor Fletcher, welcoming Missouri into the free sisterhood, and great jollifications have been held in St. Louis and Jefferson City."

The Argus made no mention of "jollifications" in Cape Girardeau. It is a disappointment The Argus neglected its journalistic and historic obligation to document local response to the norm-shattering occasion. Without doubt there was rejoicing in Cape, but apparently not in quarters the newspaperman frequented. Instead, on page three, an article of local news headlined: "A GOOD JOB." It read: "On Monday morning last, workmen commenced to tear down the old and rickety frame rookery on the corner of Main and Independence streets, heretofore owned by Andrew Giboney. It was sold lately, and is being moved up on to the hill. In the removal, the beneficence of the emancipation ordinance was strikingly illustrated. During the war, this old shell has been used as a shelter for contrabands [black refugee families], and many attempts have been made to oust them; but the protectorate of the Government has prevented this till the passage of the emancipation ordinance placed them on a level with white folks, when they must either pay their rent, or be subject to write [sic] of ejectment. The result is scen [sic]."

The Argus' snide commentary on those evicted from the dilapidated tenement foreshadows the long road toward civil rights that lay ahead for newly emancipated people.