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Susan "Aunt Sukey" Richardson gravestone
In 1842, indentured servant Susan “Sukey” Richardson, her three children, and another woman, Hannah Morrison, fled north from Sparta, Illinois, assisted by William Hayes, a neighbor of Richardson’s master, Andrew Borders. Borders had brought…
Quilt code
This quilt, on display in Jacksonville, Illinois' Woodlawn Farm historic site, is represented to illustrate the Underground Railroad's reliance on quilts to communicate secret information among fugitive slaves. Folk tales about such quilts claim that…
A national underground railroad map
Western Illinois' UGRR routes show prominently in this map, including northeast from Quincy through the Military Tract counties to Princeton, the location of prominent UGRR conductor Owen Lovejoy.
A U.S. federal list of Illinois sites
The U.S. National Park Service's "Aboard the Underground Railroad" list of recognized Illinois sites
A posthumous pardon
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn pardoned Richard Eells of Quincy and Julius and Samuel Willard of Jacksonville, who in 1843 were convicted of aiding fugitive slaves.
An Unmarked McDonough County Station
This image shows the modern home and farm buildings on the location of a UGRR station near Macomb, Illinois, "operated" by Harmon Allison, who settled there with his wife Beulah around 1854, once his father William built it. Beulah Brown Allison…
Hamilton Memorial School
Site of the Hamilton Primary School of Otterville, originally built in 1835 and rebuilt in 1873. The school was founded by physician and former slave owner Silas Hamilton. It is the alma mater of George Washington, Hamilton's manumitted slave and a…
WIUGRR Map
A map of the sites of the Underground Railroad in Western Illinois, documentable based on records surviving as of 2005
Come ride on the "Liberty Line"
The advertisement offers free travel to Canada those “who may wish to improve their health and circumstances.” A WIURR conductor, John Cross, of Knoxville, submitted this widely reproduced illustration to the Western Citizen. In 1842 he had been…
Old Charley painting
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…