BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : SLAVERY IN ILLINOIS BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR :

The debate over slavery was one of the major cause of the American Civil War. Illinois was a Northern State but slavery did not exist in Illinois. The first Black slave of record in Illinois were brought in by Phillipe Francisco Renault in 1719. Some slaves from the West Indies were sent to Saint Phillipe in what is now Monroe County. These slaves grew food for other slaves and for laborers at mines that Renault planned to develop in Missouri and Illinois. Illinois had laws concerning slavery " The Ordinance of 1787 had forbidden slavery in the Northern Territory". Petitions to eliminate the prohibition and to permit slavery in Illinois were sent to Congress in 1796 and again in 1802. The Illinois Constitution of 1818 provided " Neither Slavery nor involuntary servitude shall hereafter be introduced into the state". The people who already had slaves were not affected.

Illinois had infamous Black Laws which stripped black slaves indentured or free of their civil rights. The Abolitionists formed groups to end slavery and in 1840 the Liberty Party was established in Illinois. By 1846 this party had a majority in eighteen Northern Counties. More and more Illinoisans risked getting caught to help blacks escape to freedom. In 1847 a Convention was called to write a New Constitution for Illinois, it was approved by the people in 1848, this new Constitution forbade slavery, but the Legislature wrote a new Law banning free blacks from entering Illinois. In 1853 this law laid heavy fine on anyone bringing a free black into the state.