Ever wonder if you’re near a site connected with the Underground Railroad? There are many locations in Illinois.
As another school year gets into full swing and summer comes to an end, we also celebrate International Underground Railroad Month.
September shines light on the National Park Service’s National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, created in 1998 to show the history of resistance to enslavement. The Network to Freedom features a verified, ongoing list of Underground Railroad sites, facilities and programs in the United States.
The scope of enslavement and the aftermath has been documented by Nikole Hannah-Jones’ 1619 Project and Reuters’ “Slavery’s Descendants” series, among others. We wanted to spotlight Underground Railroad sites in Illinois, explore the histories surrounding them and provide travel details, while centering the stories of freedom seekers, formerly enslaved African Americans who escaped bondage in search of freedom in the United States and abroad.
Black history is American history. What started in 1619 — when the first Africans were brought to America for enslavement — or earlier is neither new or forgotten. In the foreword of “Unsung: Unheralded Narratives of American Slavery & Abolition,” Kevin Young writes, “Slavery wasn’t all that long ago. Its lingering effects can be felt in everything from extrajudicial violence to police patrols, from unfounded attitudes about Black people to opportunities denied some 400 years after our ancestors’ arrival on these shores.”
This project aims to reframe the narrative, to amplify the names and efforts of those who lived it and steer away from the lens of white abolitionists. By centering freedom seekers, we see their agency. To reach that goal, we toured the locations, spoke to members of historical societies, docents of landmarked areas, academics, historians and descendants of the enslaved.
Freedom seekers did not gain freedom because of the Underground Railroad; but through their actions, the idea of the Underground Railroad network came to be. In “Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad: The Geography of Resistance,” author Cheryl Janifer LaRoche writes, “The Underground Railroad was a movement — once defined as an outgrowth of self-liberators’ and abolitionists’ efforts that was later defined as a mode of operation rather than as a structured organization.”
Given that a site in Downers Grove was added to the Network to Freedom roster in April, that New Philadelphia is in the planning process to transition from a historic site to a national park, and that September festivals honoring the heritage of freedom are set for Otterville and Princeton, what better time to dive into freedom seekers’ stories?
This endeavor will be an ongoing one. The National Park Service Network to Freedom lists 25 Illinois sites (we visited 18), and according to historian Larry McClellan, even more communities can be identified as places with freedom seeker movement in northeastern Illinois. Despite all the documentation and source material we gathered for this project, exploration and research on freedom seekers and the Underground Railroad in Illinois continues.
The Tribune series begins Sunday with the stories of descendants of freedom seekers who crossed through Illinois. Check this page or chicagotribune.com/undergroundrailroad throughout the week for more coverage, which will be featured in our Sept. 17 print edition.
Descendants share their family narratives
The struggle to become free and make a life after bondage was not easy, but thousands did it. To this day, we’re still seeing the bounty of their journey through the lens of their descendants.
Map of Illinois Underground Railroad historical sites, plus what to know before you go
There are many Underground Railroad sites in Illinois that were used in the 19th century, before and during the Civil War. There’s even a memorial in a Maywood McDonald’s restaurant parking lot that honors journeys through the Underground Railroad.
Here’s a look at some of the sites and what to expect if you decide to visit.
A glossary of terms to know
Too often, details about the hundreds of years of bondage, trauma and disenfranchisement have been avoided, ignored or blatantly misrepresented. This project was conceived with the goal of centering stories from the Black community, with narratives about enslaved people’s paths to freedom, be it a first-person account, oral history passed through generations, or documentation that shares a glimpse of that journey.
In an effort to do that, here are useful terms important to our reporting and research. Many are preferred terms for those seeking to shift the way we view history, which often comes from the perspective of white abolitionists or historians, rather than from the enslaved people who were denied their most basic right to freedom.
Stories of escaping enslavement through Illinois
“By any means necessary” was no overstatement when it came to the life-or-death flight to freedom through Illinois’ Underground Railroad.
As the Chicago Tribune embarked on an in-depth examination of Underground Railroad journeys through Illinois, it became apparent early in our reporting the stories should center around the freedom seekers themselves. While white abolitionists were a vital part of many escapes, evolving beyond their lens changes the narrative, placing it in the hands of the people whose lives and families were stolen — and who gave everything to try and get them back.
We selected these seven accounts — several of which are first-person retellings — because they offer a wide-spanning look into the multifaceted lives of freedom seekers who passed through Illinois on their way to better lives. And many, in due course, became history makers in their own right.
Itinerary: A weekend trip to sites on Illinois’ Underground Railroad
With more than 50 sites on our map of Illinois’ Underground Railroad, it would be quite challenging to make the 1,100-mile round trip in a single vacation.
But as September is International Underground Railroad Month, if you’ve got a few days free, plan a weekender to visit the places where freedom seekers took refuge in their escapes from enslavement and get to know the stories of how they made new lives for themselves in Illinois communities.
Keeping the legacy of freedom seekers relevant and present
For years, Rockford resident Atwood Forten Jacobs carried around his family Bible wrapped in wax paper and bubble wrap to make sure silverfish didn’t get to it. He said he knew its importance, and he didn’t want it to get damaged.
But it wasn’t until his then-school-age daughter was on the hunt for a book report subject that Jacobs suggested writing about their ancestor James Forten, a free man in Philadelphia who was a business owner, a philanthropist and an abolitionist.
At the library, he and his daughter stumbled across Julie Winch’s book, “A Gentleman of Color: The Life of James Forten.” His daughter got an A on the book report, and Jacobs got an in-depth look at his great-great-great-great-grandfather’s significance in American history.
Jacobs reached out to Winch to tell her about his Bible, which lists the births, deaths and marriages of family members, some of whom eventually migrated west. Jacobs landed in Illinois. In sharing that material, his family tree become more real.
This coverage is presented by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.
This project was made possible with the help of people and organizations throughout Illinois, including Roberta Rogers; Robert White III; Nathaniel O’Bannon III; Landmarks Illinois; Charlotte E. Johnson; Reneé B. Johnson; Dr. Bruce Purnell; Ronald Gaines Sr.; Ronald Gaines Jr.; Connie McGee; Leanna McGee; Gerald McWorter; Kate Williams; Nalo Mitchell; Juliet Lavon Wilson; Allan Woodson; Glennette Tilley Turner; Kate Masur; James “Terry” Ransom; Larry A. McClellan; Marshall Gibson; Heather Bangert; Barbara Suelter; Sonny Renken; Jeanne Marshall; Mary Drainer; Rev. Troy K. Venning; Will Miller; Tony Burroughs; Christoper Reed; Atwood “Kip” Forten Jacobs; Kathy Pardi; Sylvia England; Joe Lodesky; Otha Davis; Tom Aussem; Rae Slowik; the staff at the Blodgett House in Downers Grove; John Ackerman; Teri Gage; Illinois Sens. Dave Koehler (46th), Mike Simmons (7th) and Mattie Hunter (3rd); Illinois State Rep. LaShawn Ford (8th); Owen Muelder; Barry Jurgensen; Paul Ernst; Lenora Carey; Magnolia Johnson; Belva Smith; Rev. Aurelia Jackson; Art Wilson; the Chicago History Museum; Southern Illinois University Press, and the Museum of the American Revolution.
Tribune reporter Jenna Smith contributed.
