Cape County Archive director creates index for former slave narratives

Inspired by a phone call she received by a researcher wanting more information about an ancestor who was enslaved in Cape Girardeau County, archive center director Marybeth Niederkorn is working to make it easier to find information about former slaves in the county.

Recently, Niederkorn created an index for the archive center's collection of narratives from formerly enslaved people in Southeast Missouri. The index makes it easier to cross-reference other documents housed at the archive center.

"Since I started here in November, we've had a few researchers contact us from out of state who are looking for information on their ancestors who had been enslaved," Niederkorn said. "Some of them from here in Cape Girardeau County, and some of them have only moved through Cape County. Where somebody from, say, European descent would have access to things like ship manifest logs where their ancestors came over, naturalization records, that kind of thing, that's really not the case at all for somebody who's looking for somebody from being brought over as an enslaved person."

Finding information about formerly enslaved people can prove to be difficult, partly because of name changes or lack of a surname.

"Sometimes, after emancipation, they would take the last name of the family who owned them, and sometimes they didn't," Niederkorn said. "You might have a husband and wife who were owned by two different families. You might have people who just decided they really liked the sound of a name, and so they went with it. So that's a complication."

The Cape Girardeau County Archive Center, 112 E. Washington St. in Jackson, houses 16 narratives from enslaved people in Cape Girardeau County.

The Library of Congress has an archive of approximately 80 narratives from across the entire State of Missouri, including those from Cape Girardeau County, on its website. Anyone interested in reading these narratives may visit www.loc.gov/item/mesn100, however some language and descriptions may not be suitable for everyone.