The Path to Freedom in Missouri and Illinois People enslaved here experienced the same horrors as those held captive in other states, and their stories of courage and perseverance are amazing. Priscilla Baltimore purchased her own emancipation and founded a freedom village. Caroline Quarlls escaped to Canada. Many who fled for their lives spent time bunkered in the basement of Hanson House. The region's Congregationalists brought a fiery. brand of abolitionism. And Prairie Park still holds the faded "haint" blue paint traditionally used on slave dwellings. Author Julia Nicolai details these and other adjective stories.

Fugitives fleeing from slavery in Kentucky, Missouri, and points farther south traversed the entire state of Illinois while moving northward. But they were most likely to receive help from Underground railroad operators if they passed through western Illinois, where a good number of Underground Railroad agents lived.This book briefly discusses the Underground Railroad throughout the United States and all of Illinois. It addresses at length the activities of Underground Railroad operators, both black and white, in western Illinois. The compelling efforts of these people have been surprisingly neglected; this book examines in detail their significant contributions to this heroic chapter in American history.

This book is about previously unidentified people who became Abolitionists involved in the antislavery movement from about 1840 to 1860. Although arrests were made in nearby counties, not one person was prosecuted for aiding a fugitive slave in DeKalb County, Illinois. First, the area Congregationalist, Universalist, Presbyterian and Wesleyan Methodist churches all had compelling antislavery beliefs. Church members, county elected officials, and the Underground Railroad conductors and stationmasters were all one and the same. Additionally, DeKalb County had the highest concentration of subscriptions to the Chicago-based Western Citizen antislavery newspaper. It was an accepted local activity to help escaped slaves. A biographical dictionary includes evidence and personal information for more than 600 men and women, and their families, who defied the prevailing Fugitive Slave Law, and helped the anti-slavery movement in this one Northern Illinois County. Unique photographs and illustrations are included along with notes, bibliography and index.

Publisher Description

The activities of the Underground Railroad, and the Abolitionist Movement in Illinois are documented by the author in this meticulously researched book.