A common legend of the Underground Railroad, which can be traced to the latter decades of the nineteenth century, emphasized that well-meaning white people “ran” the freedom network to assist enslaved people, who otherwise remained helplessly in bondage. According to the historian Henry Louis Gates, Jr., in the face of a dominating Southern interpretation of the meaning of the Civil War, many white Northerners sought to preserve a heroic version of their past and found a useful tool in legends of the Underground Railroad. These legends placed white conductors in heroic and romantic roles in the struggle for black freedom. This mythology was facilitated by the difficulty researchers faced in identifying both blacks escaping slavery and free blacks who acted as conductors. Many African Americans involved in the Underground Railroad still remain anonymous, though historians and activists lately have sought to identify them. As you read about individuals in this exhibit, ask yourself their agency, or responsibility for their own freedom and that of other enslaved people, changes the history of the Underground Railroad.
The underground railroad was illegal and controversial in its day. But as part of their recent outreach to tourists, Western Illinois communities have highlighted nearby "stations" and developed whole tours of underground railroad "trails" that visitors may follow. What is the modern meaning or attraction of underground railroad sites as tourist attractions?
Both before and long after the Civil War, the Underground Railroad has been misrepresented. As this exhibit shows, sometimes misrepresentations happened on purpose, other times, by accident. Both have contributed to misunderstandings, passed from generation to generation. Is there any item in this exhibit that shows where misunderstandings come from?
The WIURR stopped in homes, barns, churches, and crawl spaces. Some of those places still exist. Others are barely marked, or are just vacant land. As you virtually visit these places, consider the difference between the preserved and abandoned "stations."
Although Illinois was a "free" state before the Civil War, support for civil rights for African Americans, and for the underground railroad, was not widespread. Illinois voters came close to legalizing slavery in the state's first decades, and, until their abolition in 1865, Illinois' "black codes" largely prevented even free African Americans from comfortably living in the state. Items in this exhibit emphasize not only the personal dangers to black and white conductors, but enslavement of black Illinoisans within the state or bound southward - a reverse underground railroad. As you study this exhibit, ask, do its items belong here? Why or why not? How do they de-mythologize the underground railroad?
No contemporaneous map of the Underground Railroad in Western Illinois, or any other of the national network of illicit escape routes of people escaping slavery, has been found. All maps of the WIUGRR were created long after its wind-up with the abolition of slavery in 1865, and are based on recollections, some written down, many oral, of UGRR conductors. In other words, the maps in this exhibit are educated guesses. It is interesting to compare the level of precision that each map shows as well as other features - topography, context, and publication dates -which reflect emphases and historical questions of modern scholars and commemorators.
