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?
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.
