Event at Lincoln Presidential Library will explore anti-slavery movement
Illinois History Forum meets Nov. 14th

 

[November 12, 2019] 

Illinois may have been a free state, but its anti-slavery forces were far from united in the years leading up to the Civil War, as a historian will explain Nov. 14 at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

The free session of the Illinois History Forum features Jeanne Schultz Angel separating fact from fiction on how the Underground Railroad operated in Illinois. She will discuss how some abolitionists were motivated by a commitment to human rights or to religion, while for others it was a matter of economics.

The forum also includes discussion of the book “Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad” by Eric Foner.

The event starts at noon in the library’s Multi-Purpose Room, at 112 N. Sixth Street, Springfield. Reservations are not required, and participants may bring lunch.

Angel, who wrote her master’s thesis on the anti-slavery movement in northeastern Illinois, is director of learning experiences at the Naper Settlement in Naperville.

The presidential library and museum uses a combination of rigorous scholarship and high-tech showmanship to immerse visitors in the life and times of Abraham Lincoln. The library holds an unparalleled collection of Lincoln books, documents, photographs, artifacts and art, as well as some 12 million items pertaining to all aspects of Illinois history.

For more information, visit www. PresidentLincoln.illinois.gov. 

[Christopher Wills]