Historical Records Project
The St. Louis Circuit Court Historical Records Project presents selected cases from the St. Louis Circuit Court alongside other primary sources that illuminate elements of the legal history of early St. Louis.
The collection of Circuit Court Records contains four series of cases of historical significance:
- Freedom suits through which enslaved African Americans challenged the legality of their captivity long before the Emancipation Proclamation
- Suits relating to the early fur trade in Missouri
- Suits involving Native Americans
- Suits related to Lewis and Clark and other Corps of Discovery members
The project also includes four more St. Louis collections for broader context and cross-referencing historic individuals:
- Court Record Books, in which the court clerk recorded the daily business of the court
- St. Louis Freedom Licenses legally required of free Black residents in the state before the Civil War
- City Directories listing St. Louisans and their residents as well as locations of St. Louis businesses
- The Colored Aristocracy of St. Louis, an 1858 pamphlet by Cyprian Clamorgan profiling members of St. Louis’s Black elite
This site is the result of prior projects building upon contributions from many partners, including Washington University Libraries, the Missouri History Museum, the St. Louis Circuit Court, the Missouri State Archives, and Washington University in St. Louis.
About the Materials
Courtesy of Mike Everman, Missouri State Archives
All Circuit Court records were created in the course of business by the Circuit Court, its subsidiary courts, and predecessors as provided for by federal and state law. Upon the separation of St. Louis City and St. Louis County in 1875, the city retained custody of all court records previously produced. These records have remained in the custody of the St. Louis Circuit Court since that time, both in the historic Old Courthouse constructed in 1839-1852 and the Civil Courts Building constructed in 1930. The records are now housed at the Missouri State Archives-St. Louis.