The south's slave culture transplanted to the western frontier

The Missouri Compromise of 1820 had a significant impact on northwest Missouri's settlement patterns. Missouri's slave state status attracted a higher number of southern pioneers than what would have normally been expected. These early settlers brought with them their entire cultural-economic system—the production of hemp and tobacco with slave labor. Within the Platte region, the geographic distribution of these cultural variables is explained by pioneer origins. Those areas settled primarily by Upper Southerners possessed the greatest number of slaves and produced the most hemp and tobacco. The findings demonstrate that by 1850 the Upper South's slave culture had been transplanted to northwest Missouri's Platte region.