Mississippi Town

For my town I did Hannibal, Missouri. Hannibal was founded in 1819 by Moses Bates. By 1830, the population was 30. Access to the Mississippi river and railroad transportation fueled growth to 2,020 by 1850. Hannibal was considered a city in 1845. Its latitude and longitude are: 39 degrees 42' 15" N and 91 degrees 22' 39" W. Other famous residents include Molly Brown who was on the Titanic and Cliff Edwards who played Jiminy Cricket. The population in 2000 was 17,757. Hannibal is best known as the boyhood home of Mark Twain.

Slavery Project Summary

For my project, I researched Sally Hemings. Sally was a black slave and was Thomas Jefferson's mistress. She was almost completely white in appearance. She supposedly had six children with Jefferson. Today, the relationship of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings remains an interest to historians and the public. DNA testing was used to see if Sally had any descendants. DNA testing however has not proved whether or not Thomas Jefferson was the father of her children.