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In between Ward Parkway and State Line in south Kansas City, Missouri, is the Alexander Majors House Museum.
After years of searching, a historian made a breakthrough, updating history from the 1800s.
Sarah Bader-King, executive director of Wornall Majors House Museums, found the names of nine enslaved people.
Her discovery is an important step in acknowledging the history of slavery.
“Alexander Majors is a really funny historical figure. At the time, he was extremely famous,” Bader-King said.
Once known as the "grandfather of the frontier," Bader-King said Majors' name isn’t always recognized.
However, she said some may recognize "that funny white house in KC."
But through tours and other research efforts, Bader-King helps keep history alive and helps correct it.
“The truth is that enslaved people were so crucial to the success of this country, but they don’t leave a mark on the historical record,” Bader-King said. “There are some hard things that happen in our history, but the whole point of it is to learn from history so we don’t repeat it.”
Bader-King said she is passionate about interpreting enslavement — which became her area of focus — to give due credit by finding the names of enslaved people.
However, she said names in records often don’t exist.
“A lot of times, it doesn’t exist in the written historical record," she said. "To find it when I was least expecting it is an honor."
After five years of searching through countless century-old ledgers, Bader-King had a moment of luck.
“We’ve known that Alexander Majors enslaved as many as 22 people, but we’ve never known their names," she said. "The discovery of their names was kind of a surprise; it was a huge shock."
Bader-King was looking at deeds of Majors' owned property in Jackson County.
She explained Majors went bankrupt in 1860 and entered into a deed of trust with a man named Alexander Street.
“He put all of his property into a trust to protect it while he was paying off his debt,” she said.
Written in the document was a personal property record.
“Listed, there were the names of nine enslaved people and their ages,” she said. “It felt like an honor to be the person to lay eyes on these names. It felt like personalizing them, making them real people. It just made them real people, [and] it makes me even more passionate in interpreting their lives.”
Bader-King hopes the findings allow people who visit the house to make that connection, too.
“They should be listed right alongside Alexander Majors. They lived here just as much as Alexander Majors did," she said. "We're excited to say Charles, John, Amos, John, Little John, Henry, Thomas, Sarah and Milly lived here.
“It's one thing for us to say in 1860 Alexander Majors enslaved nine people, but when we can say a 12-year-old girl named Milly was one of them, it gets people thinking [about] what [it] would have been like to be a 12-year-old girl enslaved in the frontier, in a rough industry, surrounded by men be like? It allows people to make those personal connections, it kind of brings it to life.”
As a researcher, Bader-King said her goal is to remind people about the realities of slavery.
“It’s really easy to kind of forget that it happened or to feel it’s not relevant to us today," she said. "But everything that happened in the past, it's everybody’s history, not just those who could build a big fancy house.”
More research is forthcoming in tracking down what happened to the nine people post-Civil War.
Bader-King also said the museum will eventually construct a memorial to honor the nine lives.
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