Muleskinner

Issue date: 2/25/10 Section: Life & Leisure

Media Credit: William Hacker: Muleskinner A Kansas City, Mo. attorney makes a documentary to bust myths about Missouri slave holders.

Media Credit: William Hacker: Muleskinner Jimmy Johnson and Gary Jenkins rest after presenting "Negroes to Hire."

"Negroes to Hire: Slave Life and Culture on Missouri Farms," a documentary examining differences in slavery tradition within Missouri compared to that of the deep South, was aired in W.C. Morris Auditorium Monday at 7 p.m. The film played to an audience comprised of students and faculty who were invited to ask questions regarding the film once it concluded.

The film was created by Kansas City lawyer, Gary Jenkins and anthropologist and archaeologist Jimmy Johnson. Jenkins and Johnson disagree with some of the widely held beliefs of slavery and set out to disprove that with their documentary.
Jenkins was the descendant of slave owners in Clinton County.

Johnson's grandfather, George Washington, was a slave on a Platte County farm. This lead him to a later archaeological investigation of the farm on which his grandfather was enslaved.

"My goal behind this film was to explode some of the myths," Jenkins said. "My myth was of the southern plantation with the huge slave plantations and the overseer who was very cruel. That didn't comport with my knowledge of my ancestors."

Another goal of Jenkins was "to make sure people don't forget. We are capable of enslaving another human being."

"Negroes for Hire" sets out to shed a light on Missouri's history with slavery and in some ways it differs from what Jenkins and Johnson believe to be myths or misconceptions.

While Missouri entered the Union in 1820 as a slave state as a part of the Missouri Compromise, the film points out differences between Missouri and its more southern counterparts.

"The typical slave farm in Missouri had one or two or three, or at the most 15 slaves. This is a stark contrast of [what] we have been held to believe," Johnson said. "Not that it was better; it was smaller."

The film pools information from narratives of slaves as well as an archaeological dig conducted by Johnson in Platte County on a farm where his great-grandfather was enslaved. Johnson was assisted by a graduate student from the University of Kansas and seven inner city boy scouts from Kansas City.

The narratives gathered from slaves were placed periodically throughout the film giving contrast with slavery in the South, compared to that of Missouri. One such narrative stated, "The farms was a lot different from down here in Texas. They called them plantations down here, but up in St. Louis they was just farms."

The information gathered in the process of making their documentary has led its creators to conclusions not often spoke of.

"Slavery in Missouri was a little more peaceful," Johnson said.
The road "Negroes to Hire" started with Eugene Stillman, UCM's campus advocate who had read about the film in the Kansas City Star. He then contacted the author who referred him to Jenkins who agreed to present the film within roughly 15 minutes of speaking with Stillman.

"I said, 'Wait, let me look at some dates, and I'll get back with you,'" Stillman said. "I think that was two weeks ago."

Stillman expanded on the importance of understanding Missouri's history, and using February, Black History Month, to do it.

"Students and adults need to hear this part of history in Missouri," Stillman said. "You should know something about your state, how your state was founded and how it was made."

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