ST. LOUIS -- Two Missouri state representatives have asked the St. Louis Cardinals to build a historical marker to bring awareness to a former slave pen that was next to where Busch Stadium now sits.
Reps. Rasheen Aldridge and Trish Gunby of St. Louis shared on Twitter that they sent a letter to Cardinals president Bill DeWitt Jr. on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to "erect a marker that recognizes the horror and history" of the pens that were constructed like prison cells for slaves.
Lynch’s Slave Pens were holding places for enslaved men, women, and children before they were sold at slave markets in downtown St. Louis and often auctioned off on the steps of the Old Courthouse. One of the many pens was located at the intersection of Clark and Broadway, just outside of what is now the centerfield fence at Busch Stadium.
According to St. Louis City Hall, the pens were named after Bernard Lynch, a slave trafficker known in St. Louis for the significant number of slaves he sold and for his widespread advertisements. The pens weren't destroyed until 1963, but before that were also used by Union soldiers as prisons for Confederate sympathizers.
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