steven j. savery--the free negro in illinois prior to the civil war, 1818-1860 (1986)

8/3/2019 Steven J. Savery--The Free Negro in Illinois Prior to the Civil War, 1818-1860 (1986)

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THESIS REPRODUCTION CERTIFICATE

TO: Graduate Degree Candidates who have written formal theses.SUBJECT: Permission to reproduce theses.

The University Library is receiving a number of requests from otherinstitutions asking permission to reproduce dissertations for inclusionin their library holdings. Although no copyright laws are involved, wefeel that professional courtesy demands that permission be obtainedfrom the author before we allow theses to be copied.Please sign one of the following statements:Booth Library of Eastern Illinois University has my permission to lendmy thesis to a reputable college or university for the purpose of copyingit for inclusion in that institution's library or research holdings.

May 21, 1986 >iyfc^ y,.^"/^Date Author

I respectfully request Booth Library of Eastern Illinois University notallow my thesis be reproduced because

Date Author


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THE FREE NEGRO IN ILLINOIS PRIOR TO THECIVIL WAR, 1818-1860

(TITLE)

Q\

STEVEN J. SAVERY

THESISSUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS

FOR THE DECREE OF

MASTER OF ARTS IN HISTORYIN THE GRADUATE SCHOOL, EASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY

CHARLESTON, ILLINOIS

HEREBY RECOMMEND THIS THESIS BE ACCEPTED As FULFILLINGTHIS PART OF THE GRADUATE DEGREE CITED ABOVE

9 / ^zJ^ : ' ' :.t?pi ns i

DATE/ DfPAKIMlSI HtAI


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THE FREE NEGRO IN ILLINOIS PRIOR TO THE CIVIL WAR1818-1860ABSTRACT

Free Negroes embodied one of the great dilemmas inthe ante-helium history of the state of Illinois.Nominally a free state, Illinois endeavored mightily tosuppress, exclude, and dispose of a class of people whowere the ultimate result of the anti-slavery movement.While a majority of Illinoisans deemed the peculiarinstitution undesirable, they had no intention ofaccepting free Negroes as equal citizens. Free blackswere often regarded as dangerous and a menace to thewell-being of the entire society. Yet, Illinoisreconciled its apparently contradictory views onslavery and the free Negro to a remarkable degree.

The reconciliation of the slavery and free Negroquestions involved the use of a dual perception ofblacks by whites. This dualism contained a theoreticaland a practical plane as a modus vivendi , which allowedthe citizens of Illinois to religiously support theUnited States Constitution and the Declaration ofIndependence, while simultaneously ignoring thedocuments' implications regarding free persons ofcolor. In this manner, free Negroes wereunapologetically relegated to a subservient role in aracial caste system.


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Occasionally, the dichotomy was challenged. Whenthis occurred, the theoretical and practical planes,normally split apart by a gulf of silence, were drawntogether with disastrous consequences for the advocatesof change. Among the victims of this phenomenon inIllinois were the American Colonization Society, thesupporters of Article XIV in the ConstitutionalConvention of 1847, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, andthe Negro Immigration Act of 1853. In addition, politicalcatastrophe befell any office-seeker who attempted toexploit the attraction of the two planes for electioneeringpurposes. Clearly, discussions of altering the dichotomywere to be avoided at all costs.

This suppression, however, could not be sustained. Bytheir very presence in Illinois, free Negroes provided themost visible and lethal opposition to the modus vivendi .This was done neither by sheer numbers nor by economic orpolitical strength. Rather, free men of color contradictedthe traditional concepts of democracy and republicanism notonly in pre-Civil War Illinois, but in the entire nation.Inevitably, the dilemma which existed between theory andpractice would have to be resolved, either by reason orforce


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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author would like to acknowledge several members ofthe Eastern Illinois University History Department for theiraid in expediting the completion of the requirements for theMaster of Arts in History degree. Many thanks are given toProfessor Raymond Koch, Professor Wolfgang Schlauch, andProfessor Robert Hennings.

Due to a set of unusual circumstances, this paper couldnever have been completed without the generous aid ofvolunteer readers. Mrs. Violette Palo and Mrs. VernaSchlegel aided the author in Waukegan, While Mrs. StellaForeman and Mrs. Ruth Looby, both of the Charleston,Illinois, branch of the Retired Seniors Volunteer Program,generously donated their time in verbally reading sourcesfound on the campus of Eastern Illinois University.

Finally, a grateful acknowledgment is giren toMrs. Shirley Savery for typing the paper and to JamesSavery for reading, editing, and helping to type the thesis.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iINTRODUCTION 1THESIS 3FOOTNOTES 36APPENDIX 42BIBLIOGRAPHY ^


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INTRODUCTION

Free Negroes embodied one of the great dilemmas inthe ante-bellum history of the state of Illinois.Nominally a free state, Illinois endeavored mightily tosuppress, exclude, and dispose of a class of people whowere the ultimate result of the anti-slavery movement.While a majority of Illinoisans deemed the peculiarinstitution undesirable, they had no intention ofaccepting free Negroes as equal citizens. Free blackswere often regarded as dangerous and a menace to thewell-being of the entire society. Yet, Illinoisreconciled its apparently contradictory views onslavery and the free Negro to a remarkable degree.

The reconciliation of the slavery and free Negroquestions involved the use of a dual perception ofblacks by whites. This dualism contained a theoreticaland a practical plane as a modus vivendi , which allowedthe citizens of Illinois to religiously support theUnited States Constitution and the Declaration ofIndependence, while simultaneously ignoring thedocuments' implications regarding free persons of


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color. In this manner, free Negroes were unapologeticallyrelegated to a subservient role in a racial caste system.

Occasionally, the dichotomy was challenged. Whenthis occurred, the theoretical and practical planes,normally split apart by a gulf of silence, were drawntogether with disastrous consequences for the advocatesof change. Among the victims of this phenomenon inIllinois were the American Colonization Society, thesupporters of Article XIV in the ConstitutionalConvention of 184?, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, andthe Negro Immigration Act of 1853. In addition,political catastrophe befell any office-seeker whoattempted to exploit the attraction of the two planesfor electioneering purposes. Clearly, discussions ofaltering the dichotomy were to be avoided at all costs.

This suppression, however, could not be sustained.By their very presence in Illinois, free Negroesprovided the most visible and lethal opposition to themodus vivendi . This was done neither by sheer numbersnor by economic or political strength. Rather, freemen of color contradicted the traditional concepts ofdemocracy and republicanism not only in pre-Civil WarIllinois, but in the entire nation. Inevitably, thedilemma which existed between theory and practice wouldhave to be resolved, either by reason or force.


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THE FREE NEGRO IN ILLINOIS PRIOR TO THE CIVIL WAR1818-1860

The idealistic perception of the United Statesbeing the world's lone great republic permeated theconscience of the fledgling country. The conceptrested upon factors of egalitarianism and thehomogeneity of the population. Such principles weresorely tried in the acid test of creating a workablefederal constitution, particularly in the case of staterepresentation in the new Congress with regard to theNegro. The resulting compromise settled on thethree-fifths clause and an agreement to prohibitalteration of the foreign slave trade for twenty years.More astute observers like that great advocate ofrepublican ideals, Thomas Jefferson, realized theideological inconsistencies of the arrangement, notingthat questions involving the peculiarity of slavery andthe Negro would eventually resurface. Territorialexpansion and the debates over the admission of newstates with or without a provision for bondage in theirconstitutions guaranteed the continuation of the threatto the republican ideal.


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A far greater disruptive challenge to theegalitarian aspect of republicanism, however, was posedby the presence of the free Negro. While equality didnot imply a leveling of the society, it did include theconcepts of social and economic mobility. The fortunesof every free man could either rise or fall accordingto his ability. At this precise point, however, racialprejudice intervened to block the continuity of theoryand practice.

Physically different, Negroes could not easilyblend into the prescribed homogeneous society. Slaveryprovided a practical, but hardly a perfect solution tothis dilemma. As long as slaves were regarded aschattel propertythe right to hold property beingguaranteed by the Constitution itselfthey posed nothreat to the perception of the United States as a landof social and economic equality.

The free Negro presented an entirely different setof circumstances. He was not property; he was not anequal citizen. Republican ideology made no provisionfor such an anomaly. The resolution of this problemturned on the replacement of the concept of equalitywith that of freedom. If "equality" is subject tointerpretation, "freedom" is an even more nebulousconcept. Although the abstraction of freedom often


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implies equality, in reality, freedom exists in varyingdegrees. Such a perception enabled a dual system toemerge that attempted to reconcile the differencesbetween theoretical republicanism and its actualpractice. On the theoretical level, all free malepersons were equal regardless of color. Hence, thecherished republican ideal was preserved. Consideringthe racial views of the day, the second level involvedthe more practical use of a racial caste system which,if severely applied, rendered free Negroes to theposition of virtual bondage. These two ideologicallycontradictory planes were separated by silence. Anyattempt to pull them together and closely examine theirinconsistencies could prove most disturbing indeed.

Scrutiny, however, proved unavoidable when dealingwith the organization of new territories. The nationalgovernment, in its only noteworthy accomplishment underthe Articles of Confederation, created the NorthwestTerritory by the Ordinance of 1?8?. This documentprohibited slavery and involuntary servitude in thearea that included the future state of Illinois. By astrict construction of the anti-slavery provision, allNegroes in the territory were free with the temporaryexception of those employed at the salt works nearShawneetown on the Ohio River. This freedom was merely


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nominal, for not only did slavery exist in theNorthwest Territory, hut a group of laws was alsoenacted to reinforce the racial caste system regardingfree Negroes. Although vestiges of "bondage remained,once the area had been declared free, the issue could"scarcely he termed slavery." Rather, it had to "heapproached as the negro question."

The question of the free Negro and itsimplications regarding the republican ideology can notbe attributed to a large concentration of blacks inIllinois. The original French settlers had broughtNegro slaves to Illinois in the mid-eighteenth centuryto work lead mines in the region along the MississippiRiver in northwestern Illinois. Kaskaskia and otherFrench towns also included populations of Negro slaves.After their defeat in the French and Indian War in1763, many French slaveholders fled to Canada takingtheir human property with them. The victorious Englishcontinued the system of involuntary servitude andexpanded the practice when saline springs werediscovered in southeastern Illinois. After theAmerican Revolution and Illinois statehood in 1818,small numbers of free Negroes were to be found in allthree of these areas which became the counties of JoDaviess, Randolph, St. Glair, and Gallatin.


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Significantly, all of these counties bordered rivers.Gallatin was "bounded by the Ohio River and the otherthree lay along the Mississippi River.

These nascent black populations were augmented byimmigration from the South which generally flowed fromsouth to north. Free Negroes were concentrated in theriver counties along the Mississippi, the Ohio, and theWabash Rivers. In 1820, 42 percent of Illinois freeNegroes lived in the southern river counties of St.Clair, Randolph, and Gallatin (see Table 1). Over halfof Illinois* 1840 free Negro population lived in thesethree counties, and a sizeable proportion of thestate's free blacks remained in the southern riverregion in the ante-bellum era. This number declined toapproximately a third in 1850 and i860.

A majority of blacks, however, remained in thegeneral area of southern Illinois. As settlementadvanced toward the interior of the state, free Negroesformed a part of the inland migration. The southcentral counties of Morgan and Sangamon showedsubstantial increases in their black populations after1840 (see Table 2). Their gains, though, could notcompare with the spectacular figures registered in CookCounty which contained the town of Chicago. The i860


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federal census recorded over a thousand free persons ofcolor in this northeastern county. Knox County,containing Galesburg, and Jo Daviess County, with theMississippi River port of Galena, were the only othernorthern areas to record significant counts of freeNegroes. For the two decades prior to i860. Eventhough the number of blacks in these three northerncounties rose from 5 percent to 18 percent of theaggregate Illinois colored population, at no time didthe northern total approach that of the lower half ofthe state

Throughout Illinois, free Negroes tended togravitate toward more populated areas. A variety offactors influenced this phenomenon including the

2principle of finding safety in numbers. In addition,free blacks, M just as all elements which do not fitinto the traditional social order, tended to becomeconcentrated in cities."^ A comparison of towns andcounties in i860, further illustrates this point.Chicago, Jacksonville, and Galena all had over 85percent of their counties* black populations. Over ahalf of Sangamon County's free Negroes lived inSpringfield and over 45 percent of Gallatin Countyblacks resided in Shawneetown. This principle operated


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even within some cities themselves. In Chicago, forexample, 82 percent of the colored population in 1850lived in the second ward and 72 percent wereconcentrated in two wards ten years later. Theemergence of separate communities within the townsfurther reinforced the belief in the incapacity of freeNegroes to blend into a homogeneous republican society.

Although the number of Illinois free coloredpersons increased for most of the forty years afterstatehood, Negroes hardly threatened to overrun thestate. While the free Negro population rose by over ahalf from 1820 to 1850, in relation to the entirepopulation, their proportion dropped from 4.99 percentin 1810 to less than one percent in 1850. The actualnumber of free Negroes could hardly account for theconsternation which their residence engendered amongthe white inhabitants. As in the older states, thepresence of several free black communities gave rise toquestions of social and economic equality. Suchqueries led to an examination of the moral andpractical dualism with the resulting outcome dependingto a large extent, upon the various backgrounds of thewhite settlers.


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Spanning over four hundred miles from theWisconsin border in the north to Cairo on its southerntip, Illinois attracted pioneers from two distinctsections of the United States. Except for Galena withits economic ties to St. Louis, immigrants from theNorth, especially New England, populated the farnorthern reaches of the state. The middle portion ofIllinois remained sparsely inhabited throughout theante-bellum period and thus acted as a buffer betweenthe Yankee northerners and the decidedly southernorientation of the pioneers in the lower part of thestate. Settlers from the Upper South states ofVirginia, Maryland, Tennessee, and Kentucky

7predominated In southern Illinois.Although transplanted on the western frontier,

northern and southern pioneers retained much of theiroriginal sectional identities. This was especiallyevident in the different republican traditions thateach group brought to Illinois. Hard work, socialmobility, economic improvement, and opportunity forsocial advancement characterized the northern view ofclassical republicanism. While these factors were alsopresent in the South, they were overshadowed by acertain deference to a ruling elite.


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Economics played a crucial role in the differencesbetween sectional perceptions of the republicanideology. The grain agriculture of the Northfacilitated freeholding and free labor. Thus, in thepost-Revolutionary period, slave labor graduallydisappeared. In addition, emancipation wasindiscriminate j that is, bondsmen were often releasedwithout any skills to offer in a competitive freeQmarket economy. Together with prevailing racialprejudices, the resulting lack of employment spelledeconomic deprivation for free Negroes and ideologicalcatastrophe for whites. Since northern freemen couldfind little or no work, they were preceived as lazy anda dangerous threat to the ideal republican work ethic,if not the entire republican way of life. A definitepost-Revolutionary reaction existed which castsuspicion on all people who did not meet their

qindividual republican responsibilities. Thus, thebelief developed that free Negroes underminedrepublican virtues and corrupted the entire society.Such evil contaminants necessitated separation,segregation, and eventual exportation as a matter ofthe republic's survival.


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In contrast to the North, slavery remainedentrenched in the Upper South. First tobacco and thencotton required cheap and plentiful labor, thusensuring the survival of the peculiar institution. Inthis economic milieu, freeholding and free laborsuffered. Many of the Upper South* s small farmersmigrated to free territory in Illinois to escape thedebilitating economic effects of slavery. Inaddition, the presence of an enslaved class tended tocause a stratification of southern society. Men ofmeans tended to either hold slaves or to haveindirectly profited by slave labor. This southernelite formed the educated and politically powerfulruling class in the South. Men of lesser standingdeferred to the wealthier class in matters of socialand civic importance, including the problem of the freeNegro

Whereas bondsmen were, for the most part,indiscriminately emancipated in the North, free Negroesexisted together with slavery in the Upper South.These freemen too found work difficult to obtain whichin turn led to white pronouncements of laziness andmoral degradation. However, free blacks also created afear among southerners that was much stronger and more


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immediate in nature than among northerners. Theprinciple of egalitarianism supported by historicalfacts dictated that enslaved peoples would eventuallyrise up in "bloody revolt against their oppressors.Free Negroes were viewed as the dreaded agents andagitators of such a revolt and thus became the hatedpariah harbingers of an impending calamity. Whereasnortherners envisioned an eventual threat to republicanideology, southerners feared for their very lives.Hence, the racial caste system had to be rigidlyenforced in the hope of forestalling racialconflagration. While men from the Upper South sharedthe republican values of northerners, these values weretempered by the influence of slavery.

The two differing sectional views concerning thefree Negro and republicanism were transplanted intoIllinois. In general, Illinoisans regarded blackfreemen as an inferior and hopelessly degraded class.Beneath this common perception, however, lay animportant and critical difference. Northernersobjected to free Negroes on theoretical and abstractgrounds? southern Illinoisans regarded the presence offree blacks as a direct threat to their lives andproperty, indeed, to the entire social order. Neither


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the relatively minute free Negro population nor thetermination of slavery in the 1840' s mitigated theseattitudes. Governor Edward Coles, the state's secondchief executive, and an anti-slavery advocate, noted in1824 that this point was particularly evident in theIllinois "black laws. He observed that the laws were "amere transcript of those of the southern states."While Coles understood the need for this legislationgiven the large population of Negroes in the South, hedeclared that Illinois had no need for such

12restrictions on free blacks. Years later, GovernorThomas Ford, in his classic history of Illinois,suggested that the proportion of free Negroes living inthe state had little to do with the restrictionsimposed upon them. Just as there were obsolete hempand tobacco regulations in the statute books eventhough neither of these southern crops was grown inIllinois, so also the southern black codes were

13transferred northward. The situation may havechanged, but the racial attitudes did not.

Since Illinois was primarily settled by men fromthe Upper South, and the lower half of the state wassettled first and contained most of the blackpopulation, the southern viewpoint greatly influenced


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the manner in which "black freemen were treated duringthe territorial and early statehood years. Althoughslavery was prohibited by the Northwest Ordinance, thisstricture did little to diminish slaveholders' attemptsto introduce the peculiar institution into theterritory north of the Ohio River. Their effortsproved at least partially fruitful, for slaves alreadyin the Illinois Territory were permitted to remain,while others could be brought in for specific periodsof time. Not surprisingly, in conjunction with thesouthern fears of slave insurrections, free Negroeswere prohibited from entering the territory by a lawenacted in 1813. An entire code of restrictive lawsexisted before statehood in 1818. Clearly, freeNegroes were unwanted and quite probably sorely abused.In a letter dated July 13, 1818, Abraham Gamp, a blackfarmer living near the Wabash River, complained of thedualism exhibited by whites. He declared his loyaltyto the high republican principles of the United States,but regretted that the ideals expressed in theDeclaration of Independence did not apply to freepersons of color. The only solution, he felt, was toemigrate to Liberia. ^ This solution, of course,enabled whites to preserve their republican ideals by


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simply exporting volunteering free blacks who could notmesh into the ideal homogeneous republican model.Ultimately unsuccessful, colonization would be stronglyadvanced during the ante-bellum years.

In the meantime, Illinois citizens were grapplingwith the framing of a constitution to accompany theirapplication for admission to the Union as thetwenty-first state. The delegates to the ConstitutionalConvention of 1818 recognized that they were in adelicate position. The Ordinance of 1?87 had laid theground rules for statehood and prohibition of thepeculiar institution was clearly specified. Theconvention reached a compromise that would be acceptableto anti-slavery men, yet preserve the inviolableprotection against the black menace. The finishedproduct of the convention's labors contained Article VIwhich was more notable for what it left unsaid than forits expressed contents. Slavery and involuntaryservitude were prohibited, but nothing was said aboutvoluntary service or indentures. Even more ominous wasthe constitutional silence on the status of free Negroes.Article XII reserved the vote for "white male inhabitants'only. Although most of the Constitution of 1818 gavethe appearance of conforming to egalitarian republican


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ideals, Articles VI and XII demonstrated the delegates'real intentions. Only the "gullible" and "optimistic"regarded the anti-slavery article as a sincere effort

17to resolve the problem. ' To Illinoisans of southerndescent, the collapse of an entire system of socialorder was hardly the goal of the framers of theConstitution of 1818.

A year after Illinois' admission to the Union, thereason for the constitution's vagueness on the freeNegro question became apparent. The General Assemblyadopted a group of restrictive laws remarkably similarto, though not as harsh as, those pertaining to Negroesin the South. These black laws curtailed many of thefreedoms associated with a republican society. Slaves,of course, lived under a code which limited movement,assembly, and various recreational and excitableactivities such as dancing. The title of the originalblack law passed on March 30, 1819, revealed much aboutthe status of free blacks in Illinois* "An ActRespecting Free Negroes, Mulattoes, Servants, and

1 8Slaves." The only common denominator in these fourgroups was race; free Negroes were equated with slaves.In future years, succeeding measures elaborated uponthe 1819 black law, further curtailing the liberties of


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free colored persons. Free Negroes could not sue fortheir liberty in Illinois courtsj they could not serveon juries j they could act as witnesses against whitemenj and their right to hold property was severelyrestricted by custom. * Of course, that ultimateiconoclast of social order and republican virtue,

20racial intermarriage, was strictly forbidden. Inaddition, the vast majority of Illinois schoolsremained open to white children only throughout theante-bellum period. Thus, free Negroes could neitherfulfill their individual republican responsibilitiesnor were they offered any possibility of doing so inthe future

In the four decades between statehood and theCivil War, the Illinois black laws, surviving repealattempts and court challenges, became even morerestrictive. Black immigration in particular invitedlegislative improvements. In 1819 , for example, only acertificate of freedom and good behavior were needed togain entrance to the state. Ten years later, a onethousand dollar bond had to be given as a guaranteeagainst becoming a public charge in addition to thefreedom certificate. 21 While the state's chronic needfor money may have been a motivating factor in the size


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of the bond, the main objective was to exclude freeNegroes from the state altogether without specifically

22saying so. The great majority of black immigrants,whether freemen or fugitive slaves, simply ignored thislaw. Few men, regardless of color, possessed onethousand dollars in a state where land at any price wasconsidered expensive. The ineffectiveness of themeasure was further demonstrated two years later whenan unsuccessful proposal was debated in the legislature

23which aimed to eliminate black immigration altogether.Even attempts to return runaway slaves and indenturedservants met with failure as the number of repeatedadvertisements for the delinquents* return indicated.As the free Negro population increased, the severity of theblack laws rose accordingly as if by calculation. Indeed,the entire "plan" seemed "to have been intended to drive

2*5free negroes into voluntary indenture." ^ As a result,black freemen would be in actual practice what they alreadywere in the statute books, the equivalent of chattel slaveproperty. Instead of peddling in human flesh, thecontracts of indentured servants were bought and sold bythe Illinois equivalent of slaveholders. In this way, thedisquieting unrepublican presence of Illinois' freeNegroes could be eliminated without offending northern


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ideological standards or southern demands for realprotection of the social order. Therefore, Illinoisansfrom all sections of the state approved of the "blacklaws "because the measures offered something for allwhite citizens. As Governor Ford reminded his readers,"when we consider the importance, for the purposes ofharmony and good government, of preserving a homogeneouscharacter amongst the people," the separation of theraces was indeed a "wise" objective.

Free "blacks suffered greatly under the black laws.Those freemen who had dreams of freedom in a paternalisticsetting or a southern society without slavery, werequickly disillusioned. If no white person had a pecuniaryinterest in him, the black freeman was left to his ownresources which were meager indeed. For the moreobservant bondsmen, emancipation in Illinois could be adreaded fate as shown by Edward Coles' newly freed slaves*

27frightful remonstrances for protection in I8I9.Whether because of racial prejudice, lack of skills,

or lack of money, black freemen remained a dependent classin ante-bellum Illinois. The few exceptional free blackswho triumphed over all adversity still required theapproval and support of the dominant caste. For example,George Washington, a free Negro from Otter Creek, was


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educated and left an endowment "by his former master.Although "independently" wealthy, Washington needed thesupport of friendly white neighbors to protect himselffrom unscrupulous and hostile tormentors. "Free Frank"McWhorter, Illinois' most successful black pioneer, couldhave accomplished little without the support of an

29influential Pike County political figure. 7 Even though heacquired a substantial fortune used to purchase variousfamily members enslaved in the South, and although hefounded the town of New Philadelphia, McWhorter could notprotect himself from white claim- jumpers because the blacklaws prohibited the testimony of a Negro in a court caseinvolving a white man. Only with the aid of powerful whitefriends could "Free Frank" retain his property.

If life was trying for relatively prosperous blackfarmers like George Washington and Frank McWhorter, theexistence of the poor rural free Negro hung in a precariousbalance between freedom and bondage. Often ignored andisolated, rural black freemen provided easy targets forunscrupulous kidnappers. These pirates of human bootyprowled the countryside along the Ohio and MississippiRivers in the vicinities of Shawneetown and Illinoistown(now East St. Louis), both of which contained substantial

30black populations. This odious practice was loudly


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condemned by public officials, but in the first years afterstatehood, the legislature's actions on the problem wereconfined to the issuance of platitudes encouraging stricterenforcement of the laws. The black laws, however, actuallyencouraged kidnapping by preventing black victims frompressing charges against white men in Illinois courts.Moreover, the freedom certificates could be "misplaced" ordestroyed with ease, thus making free blacks subject to thefugitive slave laws. The few rural free Negroes fortunateenough to find employment often found themselves theobjects of conflict and acrimonious court battles between

. . 32their employers and suspicious whites.The towns offered some protection from sudden

reenslavement , but economic and social life remainedseverely proscribed. Although the unemployment rates in1850 and i860 for blacks in northern Illinois counties wereless than those in the southern regions, the overall

33economic picture was one of poverty. J Urban and ruralfree Negroes seldom held the titles to the lands on whichthey lived and claimed little or no personal property.Work, when it was obtained, consisted of manual labor,service occupations, and the menial tasks which becameassociated with the term "traditional" Negro careers.


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Like rural free blacks, a few notable examples ofextraordinary accomplishment existed in the urban settingWilliam Flourville, a mulatto immigrant from the WestIndies, owned and operated a barber shop in Springfield.He eventually emerged as the spokesman for the blackcommunity and became the acknowledged liaison with thecity's influential whites. Among "Billy the Barber's"clients were lawyers like Abraham Lincoln, who provided

35legal advice in exchange for barbering services. -*Flourville accumulated a substantial fortune, but it wasclear that he depended upon his reputation as a "good"Negro in order to maintain his somewhat lofty stature.Without white patronage his shop would certainly havefailed and his standing in the eyes of whites would haveunquestionably been diminished. In addition, none of hisland holdings could have been legalized without the aidof white lawyers like Lincoln, who represented Flourvillein court proceedings.

John L. Jones of Chicago, like Flourville, presenteda remarkable success story that was tempered by the lackof republican rights and equality. A tailor in a town ofsubstantial abolitionist tendencies, Jones became theleader of Chicago's Negro community. In the 1850's, herepresented Illinois blacks at a colored convention held


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in Cleveland, Ohio, and was chosen by Negro delegates to bethe chairman of the black convention held in Alton in 1856,where he launched a campaign to abolish the black laws.In spite of his considerable accomplishments, Jones, too,depended upon the sufferance and patronage of whites. Histactics, which would have brought swift reprisals invirtually any other town in the state, were perfectlysuited for a tolerant northern city like Chicago. Inaddition, his business could never have survived withoutwhite patronage.

In both rural and urban settings, therefore, classicalrepublican values were denied in free Negroes. First, therewas the glaring black unemployment problem. Although it wasdue to forces beyond the control of black freemen, the lackof gainful work was accepted as conclusive proof ofanti-republican subversion in terms of laziness, immorality,and a total abrogation of individual responsibility. Suchpeople became burdens to the republic and dependent uponpublic support. In order to combat this drain on tax moneywhich could be better spent on items beneficial to thesociety at large, bonds were required to guard against theintroduction of slovenly Negroes into the state.Significantly, in virtually every measure enacted tocurtail or prohibit immigration into Illinois, a clause was


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included which specified that proceeds from "bonds or fineswere to be used to defray the counties' costs in supporting

37their charges.Secondly, not only were poor black freemen not

independent, but the more economically advanced Negroesstill exhibited a marked degree of dependency upon thedominant white caste. Their very survival and livelihoodwere inextricably linked to the paternal tolerance andpatronage of white friends and sympathizers. No matter howmuch money they earned, how unimpeachable a reputation theyachieved, or how educated they became, free Negroes couldnever achieve the virtuous standing of independent, valuablecontributors to the maintenance of the glorious ideal of theAmerican republic.

Third, free Negroes in Illinois violated the sacredrule dictating that a true republican society had to possessa homogeneous and egalitarian nature. Not only were freeblacks racially different, but they tended to draw apartfrom the mainstream of society and, where their numberscould support them, to create their own institutions. Thistrend was particularly evident in urban areas, whereseparate black churches, schools, and fraternalorganizations emerged. This self-segregation was a iof self-preservation, but suspicious whites viewed the


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phenomenon as a conspiracy to undermine republicanhomogeneity and the harmony of the social order.

To this complex picture, Illinoisans applied thedualism of republican theory and frontier practicality.The most accepted solution to the free Negro problem wasobviously physical exclusion from the state. Republicanideology offered no guidelines on how this end could beachieved. It was at this precise point that the sectionalvariations of republicanism in the North and the UpperSouth came into play. Men from northern Illinois heldthat Negroes could enter Illinois, but they would notencourage free blacks to do so, and expected them toeventually depart for friendlier areas. Segregation andmild versions of the black laws would be sufficient toensure this goal. Residents of southern Illinois did nothave such patience. Free Negroes presented a criticaldanger that could not wait for an eventual hoped-foremigration. An immediate cessation to free blackimmigration was the first step; a complete elimination ofthat degraded population was the final goal. For a time,the two sections agreed upon the practical methods ofcontrolling Illinois' free colored population. Theideological republican plane remained separated from thereality of mild black laws. A chasm of silence allowed the


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inconsistency "between theoretical freedom and the actualproscribed liberty of free Negroes to remain unchallenged.

The delicate silence was shattered by black freementhemselves. The black laws had no appreciable effect ontheir presence in the state. Stories circulated aboutslave insurrections, especially after the Nat Turnernightmare in 1831. States surrounding Illinois wereenacting laws to prohibit the immigration of free blacksinto their territories, while Illinois, sharing two longaccessible borders with the slave states of Kentucky andMissouri, had no such laws. As an ever increasing numberof free Negroes settled in the lower half of the state, thewhite residents of southern Illinois grew restless. Theyfound it necessary to enact ever more stringent measuresthat smacked of the vestiges of slavery so anathema to theideological sensibilities of northern Illinoisans. Eachof these attempts acted to pull the planes of ideology andpracticality together and thereby force the exposure oftheir inherent differences.

The first of these attempts occurred in the early1820' s in the form of a blatant attempt by influentialsouthern Illinois politicians, never totally reconciled tothe Constitution of 1818, to reinstate slavery. 7 Bycircuitous means, this group manipulated the composition of


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the General Assembly to acquire a majority that called fora convention to draft a pro-slavery constitution. A yearlater, in 1825. the convention proposal was presented forthe voters' approval. The anti-slavery forces assailedthe plan as a sinister attempt to violate the fundamentalprinciples under which Illinois had been admitted to theUnion in 1818. Northern newcomers had no intention ofseeing Illinois become a slave state whether or not sucha situation meant a large influx of free Negroes. Evensome southerners found the convention proposalideologically unpalatable. The cheapening effect of thepeculiar institution on free labor and freeholding was oneof the reasons they had migrated northward, and they had nodesire to endure a repeat performance of that deplorablecondition. Free Negroes presented a danger, but slaverycreated more problems than it solved. Although men ofnorthern origin comprised a minority of the voters, the

40convention proposal was decisively rejected.The second major exposure of the planes involved the

colonization of free Negroes in Africa or the West Indies.The resettlement schemes of the American ColonizationSociety appealed strongly to the homogeneous facet of

41republican ideology. Furthermore, colonization containedthe attractive feature of appearing to be voluntary.


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Gentle, not violent, persuasion was the dominant technique.Free Negroes were advised to settle in Liberia for theirown good and for the benefits of civilization that theywould transplant on the "Dark Continent."

Colonization, however, had three distinct drawbacks.First, many free Negroes had no intention of leaving theirAmerican homeland for unknown wilds. It was far better tosuffer oppression in a familiar land than to perish inoblivion. This black intransigence infuriated manywhites, including some abolitionists, who assumed that newlyfreed bondsmen would gratefully leave the country in searchof a country more compatible to their race. * In additionto the colored people's lack of enthusiasm, theeffectiveness of the colonization schemes also sufferedfrom a lack of money and coordination. Hence free Negroeswho "volunteered" to be resettled because they were "doingno good," found it difficult to leave the country. Theend product of the colonizationists* labors led to theuncomfortable conclusion that although resettlementpresented an ideologically acceptable means of achievingrepublican homogeneity, only optimistic visionaries couldbelieve that it offered any practical solution to the freeNegro problem.


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Secondly, and probably more significantly, thecolonization solution became the victim of a growingtendency, especially among northerners, to perceive theslavery problem in a moral light. Although in a minority,vocal abolitionists accused colonization advocates ofactually assisting slaveholders by removing a dreadedsource of anti-slavery agitation. Ironically,colonization was condemned as anti -republican because itassisted in the perpetuation of the immoral peculiarinstitution, thereby offending the valued principles offree labor, hard work, and personal independence.

Finally, the resettlement schemes committed the fataltransgression of bridging the gulf between theoreticalrepublicanism and social practicality. By its very nature,colonization focused attention on the free Negro dilemma.In other words, how could men oppose slavery on the onehand and be even more hostile to the results ofemancipation on the other? In an amoral context, thisquestion raised serious doubts about social and ideologicalconsistencies ; in combination with the searing light ofmoral scrutiny, colonization, like the failed pro-slaveryconvention proposal of 1825. totally offended theprinciples of a virtuous republic. Unable to withstand theilluminating force of the convergence of ideological and


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practical planes, colonization died an ignominious deathof discredited impracticality

Since neither colonization nor the reinstitution ofslavery offered a viable solution to the free Negro problemwithout offending the dualistic modus vivendi , worriedsouthern Illinoisans promoted the enactment of aneffective "black anti-immigration law. In the I847Constitutional Convention, they saw the chance to maketheir proposals a reality, and seized the initiative. OnJune 24 , 1847, Benjamin Bond from Clinton County proposedan article that prohibited free Negroes from immigrating tothe state and banned slaveholders from releasing their

46bondsmen in the state. A compromise proposal wassubsequently offered which required the first session of theGeneral Assembly to pass an "effectual" anti-immigration law,Horrified delegates from northern counties objected to theproposal as a violation of the federal Constitution'sguarantee of rights and privileges in all of the states.The proponents of Article XIV countered that since thevoting age was regulated by each individual state, Illinoishad a perfect right to govern its own territory as it saw

47fit. The northerners asked if Article XIV was reallynecessary, in view of the small numbers of free Negroes inthe state, and suggested that the proposal's harshness was


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reminiscent of that anti -republican horror, slavery.Southern delegates shot back with the fact that "green"northerners could afford to hold such ideological scruplessince they did not have to endure the offensive presence oflazy, superannuated, wicked, and "good for nothing"

Z4.8Negroes. After tempers had cooled, proponents ofArticle XIV gathered their forces and won approval despitewarnings that the citizens of northern counties would neverapprove it.

More astute delegates and cynical observers, however,realized that Article XIV represented only a minor victory.The proposal's advocates had won the battle but not the warand their spoils included a pandora's box. The conventionhad merely shoved the responsiblility for finding a solutionto the free Negro problem onto the legislature where aninfinite maze of special interests could delay itssolution. 7 The first session of the General Assembly underthe Constitution of 1848 promptly confirmed the cynics'worst predictions. Even though an overwhelming majorityof Illinois citizens approved of Article XIV, the lawmakerswere quite timid. They tended to split along geographicallines, with the central counties holding the balance. ANegro anti-immigration bill was narrowly defeated in I849.Not until 1853. by the use of surprise tactics, was the


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legislature able to pass an ant i -immigration act. The lawraised a storm of protest and its comparison with the federalFugitive Slave Act of 1850 could hardly go unnoticed. TheAnti-Immigration Act provided that any Negro who remainedin the state for more than ten days was subject to arrest,advertisement as a fugitive, and, remaining unclaimed, wasto be sold at public auction for a maximum of one year'slabor. In effect, a system of forced labor was created.In addition, the infamous 1850 Fugitive Slave Act forcedfree Negroes from the state, not by gentle persuasion, butby fear of sudden reenslavement . Such extreme measuresand the atrocities that would inevitably ensue caused thechasm separating the planes of ideology and reality toclose. A virtuous republic could not permit people, nomatter what their color, to be snatched off its streets andthrown into chains. These laws merely extended the peculiarinstitution northward and therefore cheapened and eventhreatened the republican values of personal independenceand free labor. Although both of the state's majorpolitical parties, the Democrats and the Whigs, gavegrudging approval to the Fugitive Slave Act as a necessarypart of the Compromise of 1850, many people were not sogenerous. Ministers, who had previously remained silent onthe Negro issue, and even free blacks themselves joined


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53anti-slavery men in villifying the 1850 and 1853 acts. JWhile the Chicago city council called for an outrightdisregard of the Fugitive Slave Act by the local policeforce, the law's effectiveness, like that of the

54Anti -Immigration Act, was probably limited. By sogreatly countering republican ideology, it supplied thearsenal of protest and agitation rather than actuallyproviding a solution to the black problem.

Failing all else, the men of the frontier resorted toviolence to solve their immediate Negro problem. A whitemob in Cairo, and later in Mound City, attempted to drivefree Negroes out of their towns. Even though such actionspread to nearby towns, census figures indicate that most

57of the black community remained. ' In addition to being apractical failure, violence completely ignored republicanvalues. Free Negroes were, after all, "free" to leave thestate, but the exercise of such freedom must be an exerciseof republican voluntarism and not autocratic coercion.

All of Illinois' attempts to deal with the free Negrodilemma ended in failure because they offended the dualismthat governed the social order. Every civilized societyhas a code of idealistic principles and a means of puttingthem into practice. In ante-bellum Illinois, the executionof those principles with regard to the free Negro was


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colored by sectional differences in the interpretation ofrepublican ideals. The people of the state generally agreedthat the presence of black freemen was undesirable, butdisagreed on the methods required to achieve the desiredrestoration of the classical republican characteristics ofpersonal independence, egalitarianism, economic mobility,hard work, and a homogeneous society factors that werealien to free Negroes in the eyes of whites. The manysolutions to the disparity between republican theory andpractice failed in ante-bellum Illinois and, in many ways,the gap remains with us still.


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FOOTNOTES

Ameda Ruth King, "The Last Years of the Whig Partyin Illinois, 1847-1856." Transactions of the Illinois StateHistorical Society 32 (1925) il35-136.2Juliet E. K. Walker, Free Frank t A Black Pioneer onthe Antebellum Frontier (Lexington, Ky . t The UniversityPress of Kentucky, 1983), p. 100.3E. Franklin Frazier, The Free Negro Family (New YorkiArno Press and the New York Times, 1968) , p. 10.4Bessie Louise Pierce, A History of Chicago t From Townto City, 1848-1871, vol. II (New Yorki Alfred A. hnopf,1940), p. 11.United States Bureau of the Census, Statistical Viewof the United States . Compendium of the Seventh Census(Washington, D.C.t Beverley Tucker, Senate Printer, 1854)pp. 64-65.Arvah E. Strickland, "The Illinois Background of

Lincoln's Attitude toward Slavery and the Free Negro."Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 56 (Autumn1963) :475.'William V. Pooley, The Settlement of Illinois from1830-1850 . Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin. HistorySeries, no. 1 (Madison, Wis.j University of Wisconsin Press,1908) , p. 247.Ira Berlin, The Structure of the Free Negro Caste inthe Antebellum United States." Journal of Social History 9

(Spring 1976) 300.-'David M. Streifford, "The American ColonizationSociety: An Application of Republican Ideology to EarlyAmerican Reform." Journal of Southern History 45 (May 1979)203,210.

X


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10Pooley, p. 247 Edward M. West of Edwardsvillereferred to this reason in the Constitutional Conventionof 1847, Illinois State Historical Library, ConstitutionalDebates of 1847 , Collections of the Illinois StateHistorical Library. Vol. XIV. Constitutional series. Vol. II(Springfield Illinois State Historical Library, 1919)p. 2l8j James Washington Singleton, another conventiondelegate, intoned it was a "duty" to keep blacks out ofIllinois, Ibid., 224; for a contrary opinion on theimportance of geographical origin see Walker, p. 79*

i:LBerlin, p. 306.12House Journal , 1824-25, p. 13 quoted in ArthurClinton Boggess, Settlement of Illinois, 1778-1830 .

(Chicago i Chicago Historical Society, I9O8) , p. 186.^Thomas Ford, A History of Illinois . Lakeside Classicsedition, Vol. II (Chicagoi R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co., 19^5),

P. 30.Eudora Ramsay Richardson, "The Virginian Who MadeIllinois a Free State." Journal of the Illinois StateHistorical Society . 45 (Spring 1952) il2.^Carter G. Woodson, The Mind of the Negro as Reflected

in Letters During the Crisis, 1000-1860 (Washington, D.C. tAssociated Press, I962) , p. 2.Norman Dwight Harris, History of Negro Servitude inIllinois and of the Slavery Agitation in That State(Chicago: A. C. McClurg, 1906), p. 226.

^Elmer Gertz , "The Black Laws of Illinois." Journal ofthe Illinois State Historical Society . 56 (Autumn I963) i462.Mason McCloud Fishback, "Illinois Legislation on

Slavery and Free Negroes, 1818-1865." Transactions of theIllinois State Historical Society 9 (1904) t417.1^"Act on Negroes," Illinois Statutes , 1829 cited inHarris, History of Negro Servitude in Illinois , p. 226;"An Act Concerning Practice," Illinois Statutes, 1827 citedin Ibid., pp. 226-227i Ibid., I88-I89.20Fishback, p. 422; a typical white reaction tointermarriage and ultimate racial social equality wasexpressed by William C. Kinney of Belleville in the 1847

Constitutional Convention, Illinois State Historical Library,Constitutional Debates of 18^7 . P 217.


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3821Ibid.22Fishback, p. 423.23Ibid." Norman Dwight Harris, Negro Servitude in Illinois."Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society 11(1906), 52.25-\John W. Allen, "Slavery and Negro Servitude in PopeCounty, Illinois." Journal of the Illinois State HistoricalSociety 42 (December l949)i413.26Ford, p. 30.'Elihu B. Washburne , Sketch of Edward Coles ( ChicagoJansen, McClurg and Company, 18B1) . p. 50.

?8Oscar B. Hamilton, "A Sketch of the Life of GeorgeWashington, Colored," Journal of the Illinois StateHistorical Society 3 (October l910):48-52; Sylvestre C.Watkms , Sr., "Some of Illinois' Free Negroes." Journal ofthe Illinois State Historical Society 56 (Autumn 1963) 497.^Walker, p. 112; Watkins, p. 499.

3Walker, pp. 72,76; Illinois Daily Journal , April 23,1849, cited in King, p. 137; Norman Dwight Harris, "NegroServitude in Illinois." Transactions of the State HistoricalSociety 11 (I906)i52.31* For examples of kidnapping see W. Sherman Savage,"The Contest Over Slavery Between Illinois and Missouri."Journal of Negro History 28 (July 1943)018; Walker, p. 72;Fishback, p. 419.32Morris Birkbeck and George Flower, History of EnglishSettlement in Edwards County, Illinois Founded in 1817 and1818 ( Chicago i Fergus Printing Company, 1882, pp. 260-261;other examples of rural free blacks in hostile and isolatedliving conditions are in James W. Dorsey, Up South; Blacksin Chicago's Suburbs, I7I9-I983 (North Chicago, Illinois:By the Author, 1983, p. 35; Mentor L. Williams, "A Tour ofIllinois in 1842." Journal of the Illinois State HistoricalSociety 42 (September 19*49):308; Upton Swingley, "Gold RushFever Hits Mount Morris." Journal of the Illinois StateHistorical Society 42 (December I949)t458.


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3933-^Charles Noye Zucker, "The Free Negro Question! RaceRelations in Ante-Bellum Illinois, 1801-1860." Ph.D.Dissertation (Northwestern University, 1972) , p. 324.-^Ibid.j see Walker, pp. 86, 113.-^Strickland, p . 493, Watkins, p. 500.' Watkins, p.504j for other examples of urban freeNegro conditions see Clarissa Emely Gear Hobbs,"Autobiography of Clarissa Emely Gear Hobbs." Journal of theIllinois State Historical Society 1? (October 1924) t638-639;John F. Snyder, "Pen Portrait of a Governor." Journal of theIllinois State Historical Society 38 (March 1945) il22-123;George Manierre, "The Manierre Family in Early ChicagoHistory." Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 8(October I9l8)t448 { Albert E. Ebert , Early History of theDrug Trade of Chicago." Transactions of the Illinois StateHistorical Society 8 (1903) i249.-''The fear of dependent free Negroes overrunning thestate was stated by Edward Coles in the African Repository ,III, pp. 25-26 cited in Phillip J . S taud enrau s , The Ame r i canColonization Society. 1816-1865 (New Yorkt ColumbiaUniversity Press, I96I), p. 143-1443 Walker, p. 115> Zucker, p. 339 j Pierce, p. 363 j MilesMark Fisher, "Negro Churches in Illinois: A Fragmentary-History with Emphasis on Chicago." Journal of the IllinoisState Historical Society 56 (Autumn 1963) :554.^Strickland , p. 488.^0^ ,00Boggess, p. 183.41For the sentiment of a leading colonizationist inIllinois, see the speech by Cyrus Edwards in African

Repository and Colonial Journal, 1831-2 , pp. 97-109 quotedin Merton Lynn Dillon, "The Anti-Slavery Movement inIllinois, 1824-1835." Journal of the Illinois State HistoricalSociety 47 (Spring 1954) 161; also see comments by DanielPope Cook in Edwardsville Spectator , 16 May 1820, quoted inDillon, p. 15^+J Journal of the Illinois Senate 1828 ,pp. 182-183 cited in Dillon, p. 156.42An example of black objections to colonization wasthat of Rev. Ball of Black Baptist Associates of Springfieldcited in Zucker, p. 318; see also Pike County Free Press ,

7 October 1847, quoted in Walker, p. 151.


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43Northwestern Christian Advocate , 16 March 1853 #contained an editorial threatening to withdraw supportfrom the African Methodist Church quoted in Pierce, p. 383Arthur Charles Cole, The Era of the Civil War. 1848-1870 .The Centennial History of Illinois. Vol. Ill (SpringfieldIllinois Centennial Commission, I9I9) , p. 227.LlLlSee letter by Daniel Strother to AmericanColonization Society written on 18 October 1848, in Woodson,

p. 91 j for example, see the attempt by George Flower toresettle Negroes in Haiti in June 1823, cited in Dillon,p. 158; for the objections to the compulsory nature of somecolonization schemes see Dillon, p. 157.

^For the dangers of Negroes in slavery, see theopinion of Morris Birkbeck in Dillon, p. 155; see alsoRuth Ewers Haberkom, "Owen Love joy in Princeton, Illinois."Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 36(September I943) :303-304 for the beliefs of Owen Lovejoy.Illinois State Historical Library, ConstitutionalDebates of 1847 , pp. 201-202.'The delegate from Joliet, Jesse Olds Norton, broughtup the constitutional question and claimed that rights andprivileges were not based on color. His minority viewpointwas subsequently refuted by delegates from southern Illinois,Ibid., p. 210; for the southern viewpoint, see Kinney,Ibid., p. 216.

48See speech by Gilbert Turnbull of Warren County,Ibid., p. 208; also James M. Davis representing Bond andMontgomery Counties, Ibid., p. 212; also see StephenAugustus Hurlbut , Ibid., p. 215j also Kinney, Ibid., p. 216.^The delegate from Shelbyville, Anthony Thornton,proposed an amendment to require the legislature to act on

the free negro immigration question, Ibid., p. 210.* Harri s , A History of Negro Servitude in Illinois ,p. 188.-* For an example of a Negro who escaped the penaltiesof the 1853 act see Cole, p. 226.


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J The mild reactions of the state's political partieswere expressed in their respective newspapers. For theWhigs see Illinois Daily Journal , 26 June 1852, and for theDemocrats see the Alton Telegraph , 7 May 1852 cited inKing, p. 139.-^Zucker, p. 343 Cole, p. 22? for a more militantexample of protest in the form of the Knights of Tabor seeDorsey, pp. 38-39 j Watkins , p. 502 j Illinois State Register ,10 October 1850 quoted in King, p. 138; Howard H. Bell,"Expressions of Negro Militancy in the North, 1840-1860."Journal of Negro History 45 (January 1960):15-l6, l8jFisher, p. 555^ For other examples of evasion of the Fugitive Slave

Law in Illinois see Walker, p. 149-150; Savage, p. 320.^For a discussion of the frontier's raoial hostilityand the resulting tension see Walker, p. 110; for adiscussion of the frontier tendency to solve problems withviolence see Donald F. Tingley, ed . , Essays in IllinoisHistory (Carbondale and Edwardsville , 111. i SouthernIllinois University Press, 1968) , pp. 4, 8> see alsoBelleville Advocate , 4 March 1853. quoted in Zucker, p. 315.^ Mound City Emporium , 30 July 1857 cited in Zucker,

p. 32057Ibid.


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APPENDIX

TABLE 1

FREE BLACK POPULATION OF SOUTHERN ILLINOISRIVER COUNTIES


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BIBLIOGRAPHY

PRIMARY SOURCES"Circular Appealing for Aid for Colonizing Free Negroes inLiberia." Journal of the State Historical Society

3 (April 1910)i 93-96.Cummings, John. Negro Population in the United States,I79O-I915 . Prepared for the United States Bureauof the Census. Washington, D.C.i Government PrintingOffice, 1918.Greene, Evarts Boutell and Thompson, Charles Manfred, edGovernors'

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Illinois State Historical Library. Constitutional Debatesof 1847 . Collections of the Illinois State HistoricalLibrary. Vol. XIV. Constitutional series. Vol. II.Springfieldi Illinois State Historical Library, 1919*Illinois State Historical Library. Illinois Constitutions .Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library.Vol. XIII. Constitutional series. Vol. I. Springfield:Illinois State Historical Library, 1919*Illinois State Historical Library. Illinois Election Returns,1818-1848 . Collections of the Illinois StateHistorical Library. Vol. XVIII. Statistical series.Vol. I. Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library,1923.Illinois State Historical Library. Lincoln-Douglas Debatesof 1858. Collections of the Illinois State HistoricalLibrary. Vol. III. Lincoln series. Vol. I.Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, I9O8.United States Bureau of the Census. Jensus of 1820 .Washington, D.C.: Gales & Seaton, 1821.

U-.


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Burnham, J. H. "An Early Illinois Newspaper; Extracts fromIts Files." Transactions of the Illinois StateHistorical Society 8 (1903) il?9-lB9Dillon, Merton Lynn. "The Anti-Slavery Movement in Illinois,1824-1835." Journal of the Illinois State HistoricalSociety 47 (Spring 195*0 140-166Ebert, Albert E. "Early History of the Drug Trade ofChicago." Transactions of the Illinois StateHistorical Society 8 ( 1903) 234-2?4Fishback, Mason McGloud. "Illinois Legislation on Slaveryand Free Negroes, 1818-1865." Transactions of theIllinois State Historical Society 9 ( 1904) :4l4-432Fisher, Miles Mark. "Negro Churches in Illinois: AFragmentary History with Emphasis on Chicago."Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society

56 (Autumn 1963) : 552-569Franklin, John Hope. "James T. Ayers , Civil War Recruiter."Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 40(September 1947) j 267-297 .Gertz, Elmer. "The Black Laws of Illinois." Journal of the

Illinois State Historical Society 56 (Autumn 1963454-473.Greene, Evarts B. "Sectional Forces in the History ofIllinois." Transactions of the Illinois StateHistorical Society 8 ( 1903) :75-83 .Haberkorn, Ruth Ewers. "Owen Love joy in Princeton,Illinois." Journal of the Illinois State HistoricalSociety 36 (September 1943) :284-315.Hamilton, Oscar B. "A Sketch of the Life of George Washington,Colored." Journal of the Illinois State HistoricalSociety 3 (October 1910) :45-58.Harris, Norman Dwight. "Negro Servitude in Illinois."Transactions of the Illinois State HistoricalSociety 11 ( I9O6) t 49-56Heinl , Frank J. "Newspapers and Periodicals in the Lincoln-Douglas Country', 1831-1832." Journal of the IllinoisState Historical Societv 23 (October 1930) : 371--3--


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Hobbs , Clarissa Emely Gear. "Autobiography of ClarissaEmely Gear Hobbs." Journal of the Illinois StateHistorical Society 17 (October 1924) i 612-714.Holt, Robert D. "The Political Career of William A.Richardson." Journal of the Illinois State HistoricalSociety 26 (April 1933) t222-26QKing, Ameda Ruth. "The Last Years of the Whig Party inIllinois, 184-7-1856." Transactions of the IllinoisState Historical Society 32 ( 1925) t!08-154.Manierre, George. "The Manierre Family in Early ChicagoHistory." Journal of the Illinois State HistoricalSociety 8 (October 1918) :448-458.Mehlinger, Louis R. "The Attitude of the Free Negro TowardAfrican Colonization." Journal of Negro History 1(April 1916) :276-301.Montgomery, Hope. "My First Illinois Ancestor." Journalof the Illinois State Historical Society 17 (October1924) :605-610.Muelder, Hermann R. "Galesburgt Hot-Bed of Abolitionism."Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 35

(September 1942) t216-235.Parrish, Braxton. "Pioneer Preacher's Autobiography."Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society

49 (Winter I956) :424-444.Preston, Emmett D. "Fugitive Slave Act in Ohio." Journalof Negro History 28 (October 1943) :422-477Rennick, P. G. "Courts and Lawyers in Northern and WesternIllinois." Journal of the Illinois State Historical

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Savage, W. Sherman. "The Contest Over Slavery BetweenIllinois and Missouri." Journal of Negro History28 (July 1943)011-325.

Smith, George W. "The Salines of Southern Illinois."Transactions of the Illinois State HistoricalSociety 9 (190*0 t 245-258.Snyder, J. P. " The Old French Towns of Illinois."Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society

36 (December 19^3) t 3^5-36?Snyder, John F. "Forgotten Statesmen of Illinois."Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society

10 (1905) t 349-378.Snyder, John F. "Pen Portrait of a Governor." Journal ofthe Illinois State Historical Society 38 (March1945)il22-123.Stevens, Frank E. "Hazlewood, Its Master and Coterie."Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society

32 (September 1939) 313-352.Streifford, David M. "The American Colonization Society!An Application of Republican Ideology to narly

American Reform." Journal of Southern History 45(May 1979) : 201-220.Strickland, Arvarh E. "The Illinois Background of Lincoln'sAttitude toward Slavery and the Free Negro." Journalof the Illinois State Historical Society 56 (Autumn

1963) S 474-4C4.Swingley, Upton. "Gold Rush Fever Hits Mount Morris."Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 42(December 1Q49) :457-462Villard, Oswald Garrison. "The 'Latin Peasants* ofBelleville, Illinois." Journal of the Illinois StateHistorical Society 35 (March 1942) i7-20.Watkins, Sylvestre C, Sr. "Some of Early Illinois' FreeNegroes." Journal of the Illinois State HistoricalSociety 56 (Autumn I963): 495-50?.Williams, Mentor L. "A Tour of Illinois in 1842." Journalof the Illinois State Historical Society 42

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steven j. savery--the free negro in illinois prior to the civil war, 1818-1860 (1986)

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