Illinois College's original building
Dublin Core
Title
Illinois College's original building
Subject
Beecher Hall, Illinois College
Description
Beecher Hall, the original building of Illinois College, was completed in 1830. It was named for the college's first president, Dr. Edward Beecher, brother of the abolitionist preacher Henry Ward Beecher and the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe. Illinois College had close ties with the abolitionist movement and the Underground Railroad from its inception. Its classrooms and residential quarters provided safe places to deplore slavery, strategize means for ending slavery, and to assist freedom seekers passing through Jacksonville. opposed to slavery. Beecher and two college trustees helped found the Illinois Antislavery Society in 1837. Many of the early settlers in the surrounding area, however, were pro-slavery. Newspapers of nearby cities wrote scathing attacks on the college and its staff. Nonetheless, the college staff and many of the students they influenced assisted freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad. Some were arrested, and all suffered threats and harassment. Professor Jonathan Baldwin Turner helped guide three fleeing African American women to freedom in Canada. Samuel Willard, a student, was prosecuted and fined for attempting to free an escaping bondsman. Elijah Lovejoy, the editor of the first abolitionist newspaper in Illinois, was a friend of President Beecher and visited campus. After Lovejoy's murder in 1837, students held a protest on campus. One student speaker was William Herndon, later Abraham Lincoln's law partner.
Creator
Illinois College
Source
http://jacksonvilleil.org/beecher-hall/
Publisher
Jacksonville Area Convention & Visitors Bureau
Date
1830
Rights
none asserted
Format
jpeg photograph
Language
English
Type
image
Identifier
WIUGRR #6
Coverage
Illinois, United States
Still Image Item Type Metadata
Original Format
digital image
Files
Citation
Illinois College, “Illinois College's original building,” Traces of Western Illinois' Underground Railroad, accessed October 7, 2026, https://timroberts.org/wiugrr/items/show/6.