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PRESENTATION MEETING AT THE 414 JUDD STREET WOODSTOCK, ILLINOIS AT THE LAKES REGION TUESDAY HISTORICAL AUGUST 14, 2018 SOCIETY 817 MAIN STREET EDITORIAL: ANTIOCH, ILLINOIS SATURDAY EDITORIAL: AUGUST 25, 2018 AT JULY SUMMARY: IF WE HAVE MORE THAN THIRTY PEOPLE FOR THIS TIME BLOCK A SECOND TIME BLOCK GENERAL IS SCHEDULED FOR PRESENTATION MEETINGS EDITORIAL: HELD EVERY SECOND TUESDAY OF THE MONTH AT THE WOODSTOCK ADVERTISEMENT: PUBLIC LIBRARY ALL ARE INVITED TO JOIN US BEFORE THE EDITORIAL: MEETING AT THE THREE BROTHERS RESTAURANT AT 5:30P.M. THE African - Americans were prohibited from -Any person that harbored an African-American ILLINOIS BLACK CODES immigrating without a certificate of freedom. without a bond or a Certificate of Freedom would Moreover, they had to register that certificate, be subject to a fine of $500.00. Dr. Roger Bridges along with the certificates of any children, Although the state of Illinois entered the Union immediately upon entering the state. Among -Slaveholders could not bring slaves into the nominally as a free state in 1818, slavery had other things, the state legislature intended to State of Illinois in order to free them. existed there for nearly one hundred years. discourage Illinois from becoming a haven for -African-Americans from other states, could not It would continue to exist , albeit under runaway slaves. Any runaway slave found in remain in Illinois for more than ten days. If they increasing restrictions until 1845 the state could be sentenced by a justice of the did, they could be arrested, jailed, fined or peace to receive as many as thirty-five lashes as removed from the state. But the elimination of legal slavery did not punishment. African-Americans assembling in mean the removal of the Black Codes. groups of three or more could be jailed and -The Illinois State Constitution permitted limited Indeed, it was not until the passage of the flogged, additionally, they could not testify in slavery at the Salt Mines of Massac County and Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution court nor serve in the state militia. allowed slavery introduced by the French to and the adaption of the Illinois Constitution of continue: however, the children of those slaves 1870 that the last legal barriers (but not the Finally, state law forbade slaveholders, under would become free when they reached the legal penalty of a severe fine, from bringing slaves into societal) ended. age of adulthood. Illinois in order to free them. Like their midwestern neighbors, most early ______________________________________ Illinois settlers believed in White supremacy SUMMARY OF LINCOLN’S and African-American inferiority. Therefore, THE ILLINOIS BLACK CODES FIRST SOULUTION the early Illinois’ constitutions and laws of the 1818 – 1865 state reflected these views. TO SLAVERY The State of Illinois observed the Illinois Black WAS A FIASCO According to John Mason Peck, an early Codes from 1818 until 1867, when the passage By Eric Johnson / Mental Floss Illinois Baptist missionary and historian, the of Amendment XII became law. After 1853, French introduced slavery into the French- Illinois prohibited all Afro-Americans enterance to Early in his presidency, Abraham Lincoln was controlleda Illinois country, perhaps as early as the state. This law was passed in response to convinced that white Americans would never 1717 or as late as 1721. The British, who took the Fugitive Slave Law. Despite the severe and accept black Americans. control of the Illinois Country in 1765, had unfair restrictions placed upon all resident Afro- "You and we are different races," the president permitted slavery to continue, and so did the Americans living in Illinois at the time, the state Americans after George Rogers Clark's told a committee of "colored" leaders in August became a major center of anti-slavery activity. conquest in 1778. 1862. "But for your race among us there could THE ILLINOIS BLACK CODES: not be war. It is better for us both, therefore, Although the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 to be separated." had prohibited slavery or involuntary servitude, -The Right to Vote was Deneyed to all African- which supposedly were stipulated by territorial Americans in the State of Illinois. Lincoln proposed voluntary emigration to Central and later state laws, but due to the different America, seeing it as a much more convenient interpretations of those laws, had permitted -No African-American was allowed to reside in destination than Liberia. This idea didn't sit well the retention of French slaves. the State of Illinois without a Certificate of with leaders like Frederick Douglass, who Freedom. considered “colonization” to be…. When Congress admitted Illinois as a state in "a safety valve for white racism." 1818, the state's constitution permitted limited -Any African-American without the necessary slavery at the salt mines in Massac County, Certificate of Freedom would be deemed as a Luckily for Douglass (and the country), and it legalized the continued bondage of Runaway Slave and would be sold back into colonization failed spectacularly. slaves introduced by the French. slavery to the highest bidder. One of the first attempts was on Île à Vache, At the same time, the new state constitution -All African-Americans entering the state were a.k.a. Cow Island, a small isle off the coast of included a provision that would eventually free required to post a $1,000.00 Bond. Haiti. The island was owned by land developer even those slaves by declaring that the Bernard Kock, who claimed he had approved a -Any Slave or Endentured Servant found over children of slaves were to be freed when they black American colony with the Haitian ten miles from his master’s residence without a reached adulthood: for women that age was government. No one bothered to call him on pass, would be subject to appearing before a eighteen, for men it was twenty-one. Thus, it that claim. Following a smallpox outbreak on the justice of the peace and could be punished by appeared that the last slave would not be freed boat ride down, hundreds of black colonizers receiving not more than thirty-five lashes at the until 1839, or twenty-one years after the were abandoned on the island with no housing justice of the peace’s descrection. adoption of the state constitution and Illinois' prepared for them, as Kock had promised. admission into the union. -African-Americans could be jailed and beaten if To make matters worse, the soil on Cow Island they gathered in groups of three or more. Legislators in the states’ first General was too poor for any serious agriculture. In January 1864, the U.S. Navy would finally Assembly passed measures designed to -African-Americans were not permitted to testify rescue the survivors from the ripoff colony. discourage African-Americans from coming to in court against a White person. Illinois. Resident Blacks were denied suffrage, Once Île à Vache fell through, President and other laws deprived them of most other -African-Americans were not allowed to serve in Abraham Lincoln would never speak of rights accorded free White men. the militia. “colonization” ever again. late 19th century. He also designed one of the monuments. Dan Sickles found the fence that surrounds the cemetery at Lafayette Square in By Robert Frenz Washington D.C. By the late 1800’s the THE MONUMENTS Gettysburg Electric Rail Line was laying track all OF around the battlefield for the benefit of tourists. Sickles saw this, was offended by it, and put a GETTYSBURG stop to it. Steve Acker spoke to the July meeting of the Other highlights of Steve’s presentation: McHenry County Civil War Round Table. His interest in Gettysburg began with a trip ther •In 1895 a bill was passed to make the park a as a young man. Steve, a Wisconsin national entity teacher, believes that the battlefield monuments tell a rich story. He mentioned •E.B. Cope designed roads and viewing that statues were to be no more than 15% platforms larger than human proportions. An officer depicted on horseback with two •Camp Colt – during World War 1 soldiers hooves up meant that that man, such as camped and trained right on the battlefield John Reynolds, died in battle. One hoof up •General Buford’s bronze monument is paired indicated an officer, such as Winfield S. with the actual cannon that fired the first artillery Hancock, wounded in battle. round of the battle The first Gettysburg monument was erected •The 153 Pa. lost 150 men at Gettysburg – their in 1867, just a few years after the conflict. 90 days was to have been up on July 23rd The first regimental monument went up in The Lincoln Funeral Train is an historically 1879. The last great monument was the •The 151st Pa. lost 52 dead – their term of accurate full-sized re-creation of the locomotive Peace Memorial, which was dedicated in service was to have expired on July 26th and rail car that carried the body of President 1938 at the time of the 75th reunion. The Abraham Lincoln from Washington, DC, to earliest Confederate monument – the Virginia •Steven Brown carried an axe into battle – it is Springfield, IL, in 1865. Memorial – was erected in 1917. Gutzon depicted on his monument Borglum, of Mt. Rushmore fame, actually The train debuted in May 2015 as a highlight of •Gabriel Paul died 22 years after Gettysburg – designed the North Carolina monument. Springfield's sesquicentennial funeral events doctors listed his cause of death as “wounds There have also been some more recent and toured around the Midwest throughout 2015 suffered in battle” monuments, bringing the total now to 1,400 as part of the nation's 150th commemoration of stretching across the battlefield.