John Berry Meachum (1789 -1854)

This week’s article is going to focus on one of our heroes, John B. Meachum. John was enslaved by a man named Paul Mitchem. Now usually, when I talk about the Massa, I have to lock my doors and put it in my waistband because they swear to gawd one day they gonna get it… and get it good… but Paul Meachum was different, so I’m not going to straight up stump whoop it and then go up on the roof and drop like like its hot it this time. Hold on… is that somebody peaking through my window?? Naw, that’s only my Rotweiller, NBA. (Nothing But Azz) Now where was I? Oh yeah… as a matter of fact, when Paul died his former enslaved people collected money to put a memorial on his gravesite, which had been unmarked. I remember I heard a story about a nasty hated slave owner and when he died, his former enslaved people dug him up and did some shat I’m too embarrassed to talk about. Let’s just say for one thing, I don’t know why they cut that off, and then… man I don’t even want to talk about it… him hanging in a tree… the singing and the witch doctor holding it over the fire and sticking pins in it and shat… that was just uncalled for…
Okay… I’m joking…
Anywho, like I said Paul was different. He was born in 1749 and had served as a soldier in the Revolutionary War. After the war, he settled in Goochland County, Virginia. That’s where John was born in 1789. The city of Goochland is about 30 miles from Richmond. Sometime around 1800, Paul moved to North Carolina. In Goochland, with his inherited enslaved people and the ones he purchased, he had about 20 enslaved people at the time. By the time he got to North Carolina, that number had increased to 48. So fast forward ten years to 1810. In those ten years between 1800 and 1810, Paul had freed 21 people. In 1810, he and his wife moved to Kentucky, first near her brother-in-law’s house in Hardin and then to Elizabethtown, Kentucky, where Paul bought some land and enslaved more people to help him work it. The historical records show that Paul had 90 slaves at this time. So counting the 27 slaves that he already had, he purchased an additional 63 souls.
So I know what’s on your mind. You want to know what does it take in order for me to straight up stomp whoop it and then go up on the roof and drop it like it’s hot. Well, hold on for a second, I’m not finished yet. You see Paul allowed his slaves to purchase their freedom. That was how John gained his freedom. Paul let him work for other people and keep the money. He eventually paid for his freedom, his wife and kid’s freedom, and his parents’ freedom. Now according to John Meachum, in 1814, Paul asked him to lead a group of 100 enslaved people out of Kentucky. They went to Indiana. Paul and his wife later joined him. They did this so that the people John led, would not be enslaved again. Now Paul had a reason for moving to Indiana. The land there was cheap. It was $1.25 an acre.
Now although Indiana was a free state by 1816, in 1814 slavery was still allowed there. I am saying that to say, when John led those hundred or so nigras into Indiana, it was like leading them into the Death Star in Star Wars… the force was strong… a mob ran every last nigra out of that area, including the Mitchems. They eventually settled around a town named Corydon, in Harrison County Indiana. The Mitchems settled in Mauckport, which is also in Harrison County. Paul gave each family some money to start their new lives. The Mitchems emancipated over 100 enslaved people. The transactions are recorded in Harrison County’s deed books. Paul Mitchem also helped open schools and oversaw vocational training. It is reported that he lived to be 110 years old. Paul and his wife were buried at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Corydon. As I said earlier, in 1908 the descendants of the people he freed, raised money for the monument at their grave site. The descendants of the people Paul Mitchem freed still live in that area to this very day.

What’s Seven Hundred Miles Or So…

Among the people who were freed was a man named John Berry Meachum.
John was born in 1789 in Goochland County, Virginia. He was born into slavery. His father was a minister and his mother was a WEIS (What Ever I Say) nigra. As we discussed earlier Paul and his enslaved black people first moved to Kentucky. It was in Kentucky where Paul let John earn enough money to buy his freedom. John worked at a saltpeter cave. Saltpeter was the main ingredient in gunpowder. He also worked as a carpenter, making rough board coffins for those nigras that had a mind to back sass and forget their real station in life.
Paul: “Now just because I’m nice to ya’ll don’t mean I won’t hang you from the highest tree I can find!! Now say something about my momma again!!” Jed go get grandpa’s rope!!
Anywho, I’m just joking about the coffins… but John did make extra money at carpentry. After John purchased his freedom, he walked 700 miles to Hanover County, Virginia, from Kentucky, to purchase his father’s freedom. John was 21 years old. After freeing his father, the both of them worked together until they had enough money to free John’s mother and siblings who were in Kentucky. That’s right… they walked back another 700 miles. Now… Ima tells you right now… I don’t know…
Okay… yes I would… Especially since they had that black code law that said if you were black and ain’t a slave in Virginia, then you got 48 hours to leave the state or go back and get yo’ banjo… Okay, it wasn’t 48 hours… unless you were in a place where they said it was 48 hours… but normally, you had a year to leave once you were free.
Anyway, his father and the rest of the family settled in Harrison County, Indiana. John stayed in Kentucky. Probably because that’s where all his clients were and he knew that in some parts of Indiana, the force was still strong. He eventually married an enslaved woman named Mary. Now a free man marrying an enslaved woman was some real badass shat. In the back of yo’ mind you knew it was a possibility that someone was going to end up bleeding… and nine times out of ten it was going to be you. So since you were going down anyway…
Massa: “Come on over heh gal and sit on my lap…”
You: “Here’s the rope massa…”
Yep… you know you were going down after you did what you had to do…
So yeah, John married an enslaved woman. Now this was about the time that Paul Mitchem asked John to lead his enslaved blacks out of Kentucky and take them to Indiana. Now according to John, Paul was 100 years old when he asked him to lead his enslaved people, and as we know John did as he was asked. Now the messed up thing about it was when John returned to Kentucky, he learned that his wife’s owners had taken her and their children to St. Louis, Missouri. John wanted to whip azz, but it was 1814 and with him being black and all, well that was out of the question, best he could do was go in the woods and jump up and down and holler. After he let it out… and with only three dollars to his name, he made his way to St. Louis. Three dollars back then was equivalent to $48 in today’s money. St. Louis was the place to be back in those days. John moved close to his wife. He saved his earnings as a carpenter, cabinet maker, and copper to purchase the freedom of Mary and their children. A cooper is a person who makes wooden containers, like wooden barrels, troughs, casks, and other containers made from wood. History says John made a pretty penny from his work as a cooper.
While he was in St. Louis, he met white Baptist missionaries, John Mason Peck and James Welch. They had opened a school for free and enslaved blacks called the Sabbath School for Negroes.
Peck: ‘And that servant who has been told his Master’s will… and yet made no preparation… and did not obey His will… will receive many lashes.’ “Not one or two.. but many.. as in 100.. 200 or even 500!!” That’s in the bible…”
Okay, Peck didn’t teach that… Anyway, John started preaching and helping the missionaries around 1821. He was ordained in 1825 and by 1827 had built at the same locations as the Sabbath School for Negroes, the First African Baptist Church. At the time, there were 220 parishioners, 200 of them were enslaved and had to get permission from their enslavers to attend. By 1848 the church had over 500 parishioners! It changed its name to the First Baptist Church City of St. Louis and moved to 14th and Clark Streets, where it now stands.

Floating Freedom School.

Say It Again…

In 1822 John began teaching religious and secular classes to free and enslaved blacks. Secular means the other stuff, not about religion, like Math, English, and History. It was the first known school for blacks in Missouri and was called the Candle Tallow School. He charged those who could pay one dollar per pupil in tuition. Those who could not pay, could not attend, because this shat is dangerous and I could get my azz hung from the tallest tree they can find if they catch me teaching you that their Constitution says something about all men are created equal. But seriously, he let those who couldn’t pay attend for free. He taught them a church basement. In 1825, St. Louis banned the education of free blacks. They weren’t worried about the enslaved blacks, because they wish a nigra would. Those in violation of the law could be whipped with 20 lashes, fined, or imprisoned. Now twenty lashes was some painful stuff, especially when administered by a professional azz whooper. You can bet, a person is gonna faint after the first 2 or 3 lashes. Heck, I faint after seeing one lash on TV…
In 1847, the school was closed down by the police, who arrested Meachum and a white teacher from England. History doesn’t say if they got it good or not. In addition to placing a ban on the education of all blacks, they also banned having independent black religious services without a white law enforcement officer present, in case somebody got the bright idea that they would teach from the pulpit.
Preacher: “Now turn to Luke 12:47… does anybody know what 12 and 47 equal…?”
Police: “Nigra… you think we playing?!!?”
Anyway in response to the aggressive laws, John moved his classes to a steamboat on the Mississippi River. The river was a federal jurisdiction and state laws did not apply. He supplied the riverboat with a library, desks, and chairs, and called it the “Floating Freedom School”. This allowed Meachum to resume his educational practices to people of color, free and enslaved.
Racist: I know one thing… ya’ll gotta come back ashore to get something to eat…
John Meachum was a relatively rich man in his time. He was worth an estimated $700,000 in today’s money. He built that riverboat out of his own money and equipped it with a library and classrooms. One of the students who attended the Floating Freedom School was one of the founders of the Lincoln Institute, the first black university in Missouri. John Meachum died at his pulpit on February 26, 1854.

“In order that we might do more for our young children, I would recommend manual labor schools to be established in the different states, so as the children could have free access to them. And I would recommend in these schools pious teachers, either white or colored, who would take all pains with the children to bring them up in piety, and in industrious habits. We must endeavor to have our children look up a little, for they are too many to lie in idleness and dishonor.”
John Berry Meachum – 1846.

And That Ain’t All Folks…

Between 1826 and 1836, the Meachums purchased the freedom of 20 enslaved people through profits from his business. Everybody he freed at that time paid him back and he used the money to purchase the freedom of others. That’s when they were not ferrying escaped enslaved people across the Mississippi to freedom in Illinois. By 1846 John Meachum had purchased the freedom of an additional 22 African Americans, teaching them vocational skills and how to be self-reliant.
After his death, Mary continued his work as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. She even went to jail for violating the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. We talked about it in our last article, “The Christiana Riots”. Anyway, she was acquitted of one charge and the rest of the charges were dropped.
Mary Meachum was also president of the Colored Ladies Soldiers’ Aid Society in St. Louis. That’s important because blacks were not allowed to ride the trolley in St. Louis… not even in the back… not even holding on to the back outside the car… not even allowed on the tracks… as a matter of fact, you couldn’t even look at one… let me stop. It’s important because her organization negotiated with the trolley car company so that one day out of the week they would be able to ride the trolley to visit wounded servicemen at the hospital wing of Benton Hall. Benton Hall was built during the Civil War. It used to be a racetrack before the military used it for their purposes. It was dismantled after the war and nothing remains of it today. But to think that she was able to get those racists to let any black person ride a segregated trolley to see other black people who were fighting in the Civil War… is a miracle in itself. Black folks killing white folks was a no-no… even in the North in some places…
Mary Meachum died in St. Louis on August 8, 1869. She is buried with her husband in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.
If you ever go to St. Louis, drop by and show some love for John and Mary Meachum and the part they played in African-American history.

Thanks for reading ©Hill1News.