Interesting and utterly new to me. Thanks. Map of "Little Dixie" counties. http://www.rootsweb.com/~morandol/maps.htm Hannibal/St. Petersburg is in Pike County, shown here as "bordering" relative to Little Dixie. Also, of course, just across the river is free-soil Illinois. Add in islands which might be free-soil one day and slave territory the next, and certainly a dynamic circumstance results! DDD PS: This map exaggerates the size of the rivers (obviously) but shows the "highway" system (if you will) very well. I don't know how far up the Missouri was navigable by large boats. http://www.mapofmississippi.com/map_of_mississippi.cfm