Squeeze into a small space as you investigate the passage from Africa to America on a slave ship. Feel the power of control exerted over the enslaved and examine the laws that governed slavery. Discover the ingenuity and cleverness utilized by those who made daring escapes. Talk with a costumed interpreter about the challenges of daily life as an enslaved person. Hear secret messages in songs to help guide fugitives to freedom and imagine life on the run as an abolitionist provides shelter. This disturbing time in American history takes on new meaning and relevance in this powerful, award-winning program, which features costumed first-person interpretation, role-play, songs, and hands-on object investigation.

“Abolition and Anti-Slavery Activities Along the Underground Railroad in the Midwest,”

Diane Miller, National Program Manager, National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom
Tim Townsend, Park Historian, Lincoln Home National Historic Site
Alberta Adamson, President and CEO, Center for History, Wheaton

Moderator: Owen Muelder, Knox College, Underground Railroad Freedom Center

“Researching Slavery, Abolition, and the Underground Railroad in Illinois: Using the Resources of IDA (Illinois Digital Archives) and ALPLM (the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum)

Joe Natale, Illinois State Library
Gwen Podeschi, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum

Program: “The Political Power of the Underground Railroad in Illinois,”

Rev. William F. Moore, Co-director, The Lovejoy Society

“Researching Slavery, Abolition, and the Underground Railroad in Illinois: Using the Resources of IDA (Illinois Digital Archives) and ALPLM (the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum),”

Joe Natale, Illinois State Library
Gwen Podeschi, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum

Labor, politics, and muckrakers

“Frank Stauber v. J.J. McGrath: The Stolen Election of 1880 in Chicago’s 14^th Ward,”
Scott Burgh, Chief Law Librarian, City of Chicago Law Library

“A Priest on the Front Lines: Father Martin Mangan in the Decatur ‘War Zone,’”
Bob Sampson, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

“Midwestern Muckraker Moved the Masses: How Rick Baker Earned a Place in Illinois Literature,”
Ann Tracy Mueller, Independent Researcher and Blogger, Heyworth

Chair:

Commentator:

Free soil, Free Illinois

“Illinois and the Free Soil Party, 1848-1852,”
Philip A. Grant, Jr., State University of New York (SUNY), Buffalo

“The Fiery Contest of Slavery in Madison County: ‘The Desperate and Protracted Struggle to Keep the Soil of Illinois Sacred to Freedom,’”
Terri Cameron, Illinois State Historical Society, Independent Researcher, Springfield

“Battle for the Prairie State: Illinois Politics During the Civil War,”
Jonathan Sebastian, Loyola University, Chicago

Chair: Elaine Evans, Illinois State Archives

Commentator:

Lincoln and the Abolitionists

“Garrison Abolitionists and President Abraham Lincoln During the Civil War,”
A.J. Aiseirithe, Assistant Editor, The Papers of Abraham Lincoln

“The Abolitionization of Major General Lew Wallace,”
S. Chandler Lighty, Research Associate, The Papers of Abraham Lincoln

“The Prayers of a Few Thousand: Abolitionists Advise Lincoln,”
Daniel W. Stowell, Director/Editor, The Papers of Abraham Lincoln

Chair/Commentator: Jack McKivigan

Abolition and the Church, Part I

“Methodists and Abolition in Illinois,”
Richard Chrisman, retired historian, Illinois Great Rivers Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, Bloomington, Illinois

“ ‘Decidedly Anti-Slavery’: The History of the First Congregational Church in Sycamore, Illinois,”
Nancy Beasley, Independent Researcher, West Portage, Wisconsin

“For Humanity: Clergy/Anti-Slavery Agents in Illinois, 1824-1861,”
Jeanne McDonald Waubonsee Community College, Sugar Grove

Chair:

Commentator:  David Maas, Wheaton College

Images of Early Illinois

“‘The Ultimate Tale’: The French Jesuits in Illinois, 1750-1763,”
Kyle D. Harvey, Independent Researcher, Chatham, Illinois

“‘Come Recently from Guinea’: African-Descended People in French Illinois,”
Donovan Weight, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale

Chair:

Commentator:

Perceptions of Race and Society before and after the Civil War

“East to West, Black to White: Law and Racial Determination in Ante-bellum Illinois,”
Allision Gorsuch, Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

“Abolitionism and Nativism, Strange Bed Fellows,”
Ivan Hardt, Independent Scholar, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

“Curiosity and Apprehension: French Visitors’ Reactions to African Americans During the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition,”
Mary Beth Raycraft, Vanderbilt University

Chair:

Commentator:

Squeeze into a small space as you investigate the passage from Africa to America on a slave ship. Feel the power of control exerted over the enslaved and examine the laws that governed slavery. Discover the ingenuity and cleverness utilized by those who made daring escapes. Talk with a costumed interpreter about the challenges of daily life as an enslaved person. Hear secret messages in songs to help guide fugitives to freedom and imagine life on the run as an abolitionist provides shelter. This disturbing time in American history takes on new meaning and relevance in this powerful, award-winning program, which features costumed first-person interpretation, role-play, songs, and hands-on object investigation.

 Evening Program: 7:30 p.m.- 9:00 p.m.

“The National Amistad Research Center: Ongoing Research and Programs,” 
Dr. Lee Hampton, Director

Panel: “Embracing, Expanding, and Remembering Anti-Slavery in the Old Northwest Borderlands,”

 “Joshua Giddings and the Emancipation of a Political Abolitionist,”
Charlotte (Cathy) Rodabaugh, Doctoral Candidate, West Virginia University
“Not Only Slavery but Racism: Old Northwest Abolitionists Fight ‘Black Laws,’”
Dana Elizabeth Weiner, Assistant Professor, History, Wilfrid Laurier University

“An Abolitionist Missionary in Kentucky: John G. Fee and the Memory of Anti-Slavery on the Middle Ground,”
Raymond James Krohn, Doctoral Candidate, History, Purdue University, Part-time instructor, Univ. of Northern Colorado

Moderator: Stacey Robertson, Associate Professor, History, Bradley University.

The Underground Railroad

“The Underground Railroad in LaSalle County,”
Glinette Tilley Turner, Naperville

“Freedom Seekers in Illinois: The Flame Beside the Spark,”
Larry McClellan, Independent Researcher and Pastor, First Christian Church, Chicago Heights

“The Underground Railroad at Wheaton College,”
Dr. David Maas, History Program, Wheaton College

Chair/Commentator: Patricia Walton, Klein Creek Farm

Commentator:

Panel: Bob McColley/Stacey Robertson/

“Retrieving the Reputation of Elijah P. Lovejoy, Martyr of the Anti-Slavery Movement,”
Rev. Jane Ann Moore, Co-Director, The Lovejoy Society

Moderator: Dan Monroe

Break

Rachel Malcolm Ensor, Preservation Summer

Saving Cairo Shotgun Houses

Abolitionists as Reformers

 “Abolition in Southern Illinois,”
Christina Bearden-White, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale

“Beyond Anti-Slavery: Abolitionists as Part of the Reform Movement,”
Jeanne Schultz Angel, Lombard Historical Society

Chair:

Commentator:

“The Rise and Fall of the American-Anti-Slavery Society,”
Owen Muelder, Director, Knox College Underground Railroad Research Institute, Galesburg

The Northwest Territory, Slavery, and Native Americans

“The Northwest Ordinance and Slavery, Education, and Religion,”
David W. Scott, Illinois State Historical Society, Independent Researcher, Springfield

“How Native American Presences in Illinois Today Compares to Other States of the Old Northwest Territory,”
Dennis Sweatman, Independent Researcher, Springfield

Chair:

Commentator:

Afternoon Plenary Session 3:15 p.m.

“The Election of 1860,”

Dr. Michael Burlingame, Naomi B. Lynn Chair of Lincoln Studies, University of Illinois Springfield

“Abuse of People—Abuse of Power,” Center for History, Wheaton

“The Abuse of People—The Abuse of Power,” examines the injustices of power, from slavery to the Holocaust, focusing on the inhumane treatment of people by their fellow human beings.