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Mary Meachum Freedom Crossing Annual Celebration

September 20, 2025
10:00 am - 1:00 pm
Missouri Botanical Garden
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The 23rd Annual Mary Meachum Freedom Crossing Celebration is a two part event that highlights the story of the people whom Mary Meachum led to seek their freedom from enslavement by Henry Shaw at the site of today’s Missouri Botanical Garden. This year’s theme is “Unconditional Freedom: Live Free or Die Trying." The first event takes place on Saturday, September 20 at the Garden. The second event takes place at the Mary Meachum Freedom Crossing site on Saturday, September 27 (learn more).

On May 21, 1855, nine enslaved persons including four owned by Henry Shaw along with their guides crossed the Mississippi River from St. Louis. They were attempting to reach the route to freedom through Illinois in the early morning hours. Accompanying them was Mary Meachum, a free woman of color, the widow of a prominent black clergyman. Unfortunately, bounty hunters awaited them and were soon captured. The location of this historic event on the banks of the Mississippi River is memorialized today as the Mary Meachum Freedom Crossing. In December 2001, the Meachum site was dedicated as part of the National Park Service’s Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. The attempted escapes by some of those enslaved by Henry Shaw mark Tower Grove House as a site on the National Park Service’s Underground Railroad Network to Freedom as of fall 2023. 

Saturday, September 20 | Missouri Botanical Garden
10 a.m.–1 p.m.

10 a.m.–noon:
  • Explore and learn more about this history at Tower Grove House
  • Pot-a-Plant with Interpreters at the Children’s Garden
  • Educational Activities in the Brookings Exploration Center, including a Community Paper Quilt project
Noon:
Reenactment Performance at Cohen Amphitheater

Guidelines for this event:
Ticketed guests are allowed to bring blankets or folding chairs to sit in Cohen Amphitheater for the performance.

Admission is free, but advance registration is required. Registration includes Garden admission, the Doris I. Schnuck Children's Garden, and all activities. 

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