Old Charley painting
Dublin Core
Title
Old Charley painting
Subject
African American agents in the Underground Railroad
Description
An 1856 painting of a man, Charley and a girl, Abigail Peck. Charley allegedly escaped slavery in Lewis County, Missouri in 1842 and was either caught in Quincy, Illinois and returned to bondage, or became a conductor, helping others to freedom on multiple trips between eastern Missouri and Chicagoland. In 2018 the Lombard Historical Society produced research indicating Charley resided with the Sheldon Peck family of Lombard in the 1850s before, possibly, enlisting in the U.S. military during the Civil War. Various oral histories about Charley, though none by him or other African Americans, circulated in Quincy and in McDonough County. One account attributed his assistance to other escaped slaves to his bitterness at learning of his master's sale of his wife while he was a fugitive.
Creator
Lombard Historical Society
Publisher
Lombard Historical Society
Date
June 17, 2020
Contributor
Sandy Schroeder
Rights
Lombard Historical Society
Format
jpeg photograph
Type
image
Identifier
WIUGRR #18
Coverage
Illinois, United States
Still Image Item Type Metadata
Original Format
Painting
Files
Citation
Lombard Historical Society, “Old Charley painting,” Traces of Western Illinois' Underground Railroad, accessed May 16, 2024, https://timroberts.org/wiugrr/items/show/18.