Diane Mutti Burke, an assistant professor of history at the University of Missouri – Kansas City, discusses her new book about slavery in Missouri and how it differed from the Deep South on Sunday, January 16, 2011, at 2 p.m. at the Central Library, 14 W. 10th St.

In her book On Slavery’s Border: Missouri’s Small Slaveholding Households, 1815-1865, Mutti Burke says white Missourians believed their version of slavery was milder than the bondage of other states and that some slaves, who expressed fear of being sold further south, seemed to agree. However, Mutti Burke points out, Missouri’s proximity to free states—along with a feeling that slavery was being threatened—led to frequent, violent reassertions of white supremacy.

Copies of On Slavery’s Border will be available for sale, and Mutti Burke will sign copies purchased during the event.

This presentation is part of the Missouri Valley Speakers Series, a program of the Missouri Valley Special Collections at the Central Library. The series is made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.