An+Introduction+to+the+UGRR+in+Western+Illinois

Original Author: Joe Brorby, ENG206 SP10 Revision Author: Jami L Lavin ENG340 FALL10
 * An Introduction to the UGRR in Western Illinois**

The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes, and people including free blacks, antislavery sympathizers, and abolitionists, that was designed to help fugitive slaves escape north to freedom. According to the essay, “The Underground Railroad,” this network began towards the end of the 18th century and “effectively moved hundreds of slaves northward each year” of its existence (Africans in America). Though the system is called the “Underground Railroad,” it had no literal connection to the railroads and picked up the term in 1831 (Africans in America). More specific aspects of the Underground Railroad also received terms related to railroading. The groups of people that made up the network had different jobs to make the system work effectively, and the jobs were given different terms. There were “stationmasters” who ran the locations of the resting points, where fugitive slaves rest, termed “stations” and “depots.” There were “stockholders” who would supply money and other items to the network. And there were “conductors” who would transport the runaways from station to station (Africans in America). According to the same essay mentioned above, “the south lost 100,000 slaves between 1810 and 1850” to the Underground Railroad. Take a closer look at what it would be like to be on the run on the Underground Railroad by looking at THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD by following the link here: []. The area of the Underground Railroad that will be focused on in this essay is a region in western Illinois. The topics covered will be some helpful, general guidelines that aided fugitive slaves in there escape, some advantageous aspects of the region, and a major city of the western Illinois region of the Underground Railroad. Learn more about the Illinois Underground Railroad by following the link here: [].

In The Underground Railroad in Western Illinois, it is said that “the most significant characteristics of runaways was their intelligence,” and the “most salient characteristic was [their] courage” (Muelder). Another important aspect of a slaves escape to freedom, however, would be their guidelines. It is said that in the western Illinois network of the Underground Railroad, there were guidelines for directions and guidelines for not getting caught. The five basic directions a fugitive slave needed to know in the western Illinois region of the Underground Railroad, as stated in The Underground Railroad in Western Illinois, were:

(1) the sun rises in the east and sets in the west; (2) you’re walking north when the sun rises over your right shoulder and sets on your left, or if your shadow is on your left side in the morning and your right in the afternoon; (3) when you’re facing north, south is behind you, east is to your right and west is to your left; (4) moss almost always grows on the north side of trees; and (5) at night the North Star, Polaris, can be your heavenly marker toward safety;...(Muelder)

These directional guidelines were believed to be spread around by black sailors who were familiar with navigation by stars. This belief led to “ordinances [being] passed requiring black sailors to be jailed while they were in port in order to prevent the spread of these [guidelines]” (Muelder). Another navigational source was provided by a man named William J. Phelps in Elmwood Illinois. In a barn that Phelps own, there would be a lantern placed behind a carving in the wood so that while difficult to see during the day, it was easy for someone with knowledge of it to locate during the night. “Runaway slaves had been alerted by their abolitionist friends that when the [carving] beamed light after dark, it was safe for them to pass in order to reach the next place of concealment” (Muelder).

Since, by transporting escaped slaves to freedom, the operators of the Underground Railroad were breaking the law along with the fugitives, all of the participants had to be extremely careful. So first, the slaves had to worry about making the escape safely. It is said that the best time for a slave to choose to escape was during holidays or weekends. The reason for this was because if they left during a holiday or weekend, “time elapsed before a slave’s departure would be discovered” (Muelder). Learn more about the laws of transporting blacks and more on people who helped out in the Illinois region by following the link: http://www.illinoisancestors.org/knox/african_americans/underground_railroad.html.

And once the slave escaped the plantation safely, along with guidelines of travel, there were also guidelines to prevent being captured. As stated in The Underground Railroad in Western Illinois, the five guidelines to avoid capture were:

(1) staying close enough to a river bank to use the river to get a sense of direction; (2) wading in streams to confuse dogs trying to follow their scent, even though some trained canines could pick up a trail even in water; (3) rubbing the bottoms of their feet with onion, turpentine, or pepper to cover their scent; (4) occasionally going south rather than north, which might fool their pursuers; and (5) remaining very still all day;...(Muelder)

Other strategies to avoid capture included diversions. Often times proslavery people would be on the look out for runaways and members of the Underground Railroad in hopes of receiving a reward. Abolitionists were aware of this would use trickery to allude the potential captors. According to The Underground Railroad in Western Illinois, some abolitionists would be “disguised and overdressed, whisked from the back door to the barn and loaded quickly into a wagon or a buggy” in order to look suspicious (Muelder). This would cause the reward seekers to track them down while the real fugitives escaped in a separate cart. Additional methods runaways remained hidden during their transportation through the Underground Railroad included hiding in, “an empty cider barrel, a wagon with a false bottom, or under stacks of hay” (Muelder).

The reason why these guidelines were applied to the UGRR system was because the punishments for being caught were very severe for both runaway and helper. The helpers could possibly be jailed and the slaves could face punishments as severe as “branding, whipping, crippling, and even death” enforced with “clubs, hickory sticks, buggy whips, paddle boards with bore holes, braided rope cords, the flat side of handsaws, leather straps, and bullwhips” (Muelder). Slave-trackers would also use dogs to find the runaways, and as a source of punishment. The trackers had a species of dog that was specifically trained to sniff-out blacks. The dogs were “capable of tearing a fugitive to pieces” (Muelder).

One of the most advantageous aspects of the western Illinois region of the Underground Railroad was its region known as the Military Tract. This region was so helpful to the cause of the Underground Railroad because of its rivers (the Rock River, the Mississippi River, the Illinois River), and its landscape. In The Underground Railroad in Western Illinois it is stated that this regions landscape and rivers were so advantageous because:

(1) run-aways [bolted] from a “slave state” bordering a “free state” and [came] in large enough numbers; (2) [required] a sufficient cluster of UGRR “agents,” “conductors” and “operators” to support their movement to Canada; and (3) [had] waterways to enhance quick passage through the north;...(Muelder)

Another aspect of this western Illinois region that was useful was the presence of very tall prairie grass. The prairie grass in this area was said to have grown taller than seven feet high and spread for miles (Muelder). So not only did this make it extremely hard to spot anyone walking through it, but one needed to be very familiar with the land to transport through it quickly and efficiently, and most of the members of the Underground Railroad were.

According to the book //The Underground Railroad in Western Illinois//, one of the most important cities to the Underground Railroad in that region was Quincy, Illinois. (Muelder). It was one of the cities that made up the main line of Quincy, Galesburg, and Princeton that the networks routes went through. “Quincy was on of the first stations on the railway, and a base of supplies for the Galesburg station” (Muelder). For more information on the Galesburg Station, see UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREEDOM STATION, available here: [].

In Adams County, the city of Quincy’s location and abolitionists made for high tension with its bordering area across the river. Quincy was located on free land, but the major slave area of Missouri near Quincy was not. In 1860, “the largest concentration of Missouri slaves lived in the north central part of the state, directly west of Quincy” (Muelder). So on one side, there were many pro slavery people who would try to sabotage the escape of slaves, and on the other there were many abolitionists. Some of the major abolitionists in the Quincy area during the time of the Underground Railroad were Dr. David Nelson, a group of three women named Foote, Eels and Turner, and a group of three men named Thompson, Work, and Burr (Muelder). Dr. David Nelson founded the Mission Institute in 1837, in Quincy, which was an antislavery association, preaching that slavery was a sin. It is said that students from the institution would sneak slaves from Missouri across the river, and that the Mission Institute served as a resting area of the Underground Railroad (Muelder).

There are also accounts of abolitionists in Quincy who risked being put in jail for there assistance in the escape of fugitive slaves. It is said that during the 1850’s, a group of three women, Mrs. Dr. Foote, Mrs. Willard Turner, and Mrs. Dr. Eels once visited a runaway who had been captured and jailed by the Quincy police. The women notified the jailer when they were done visiting with the slave and left. The next morning the jailer went to feed the slave and found one of the women in the cell instead of the slave (Muelder). This woman was let go, but a more serious story is about a group of three men, George Thompson, Alanson Work, and James E. Burr. These three men were students of the Mission Institute and they were captured in Missouri trying to help fugitive slaves escape across the river. As a result, “Work spent...over three years in jail before he was paroled; Burr was released after four and a half years; and Thompson was incarcerated for nearly five years” (Muelder). Lastly, Mrs. Eels husband, Dr. Eels was convicted and fined for giving a slave dry clothes and providing him a ride to the Mission Institute (Muelder). To learn more about Eels see DR RICHARD EELS HOUSE, available here: [].

Quincy was not the only important city in the western Illinois region of the UGRR, and these were not the only abolitionists. But this information gives an example of helpful factors of a good UGRR town, and an idea of what lengths some abolitionists were willing to go to in order to free slaves. There are many interesting videos on the Underground Railroad such as []. Also []. Though this next video is of a house in Iowa it provides information and some insight to how the slaves would find their way to the houses follow this link: [].

Muelder, Owen W. The Underground Railroad in Western Illinois. McFarland and Company, Inc. 2008. Print. “The Underground Railroad.” Africans in America. PBS Online. Accessed on April 23, 2010. [] “Dr Richard Eels House” nps.gov. Accessed on December 6, 2010. [] “The Underground Railroad” National Geographic. Accessed December 6, 2010. [] “Underground Railroad Freedom Station.” Knox College. Accessed on December 6, 2010. [] “Illinois Underground Railroad” Accessed on December 6, 2010. [] “Underground Railroad” Illinois ancestors.org. Accessed on December 6, 2010. [] “The Underground Railroad: A Journey to Freedom” youtube.com. Accessed on December 6, 2010. [] “Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad” youtube.com. Accessed on December 6, 2010. [] “George Hitchcock House Underground Railroad” youtube.com. Accessed on December 6, 2010. []
 * Works Cited**

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