Illinois Transatlantic Slave Trade Commission Illinois’ Black Pioneers and Freedom Fighters
By Toni Costonie with the assistance of Zada Johnson
Beginning between 1718 and 1720 the French started bringing enslaved African Americans into Illinois. Those French occupiers included invaders, priests, fortune hunters, roving opportunists, settlers, and colonists. By the mid-1700s, free blacks and escaped slaves had already formed maroon colonies and free settlements. In fact, Illinois may have been home to more free black settlements than any other state. Some of these settlements and towns still exist.
In the antebellum (pre-Civil War) period there were three different kinds of black towns:
- Maroon colonies, composed of escaped slaves in hiding and freed blacks. Brooklyn is an example of a former maroon settlement.
- Communities of free blacks whose residents gained their freedom by posting bonds. These communities include Pond Settlement and Miller Grove.
- Black settlements created by whites, or with white assistance --some of these whites were former slave owners and some were abolitionists. Africa and Eden were among these assisted free black communities.
The first known African American pioneer was Jean Pointe Baptiste DuSable, who built the first non-Indian settlements in Peoria and Chicago. There is evidence that DuSable also built a settlement in Michigan City, Indiana, near the shore of Lake Michigan. There also are historical references to DuSable having been the leader of one or more maroon settlements.
DuSable was followed by a long line of Illinois black pioneers including Mother Pricilla Baltimore (who is often called the Harriet Tubman of Illinois) and her husband, who were among the founders of Brooklyn / Lovejoy. The Taborn, Mitchell, Cole, and Evans families founded Pond Settlement / Lake View / Carrier Mills, sometime around 1812, making this one of the oldest cities in Illinois. Free Frank McWhorter founded New Philadelphia, and Neal Elliott created the Grayson Settlement. Stephen Dudley and Hardin Bostick escaped slavery in Williamson County and founded the Bostick Settlement in Jackson County. They joined the Union Navy and served as sailors on the USS General Bragg. Today a cemetery is all that remains of their settlement. By the beginning of the Civil War there were dozens of black settlements like these, many of them hidden in Illinois.
In the 1830's, escaping slaves were being absorbed by the free Black communities around Alton. These communities included Hunterstown, Rocky Fork, and Wood Station. Rocky Fork and Wood Station were rural settlements. In most cases, their farms stayed in the same families for over one hundred years. One of those farms is owned by the family of Olive (Johnson) Bunche, the mother of Ralph Bunche -- the first African American Noble Peace Prize recipient . The Johnson family farm, founded in the 1840's, is the oldest family farm in Illinois. See Brian Urquhart, Ralph Bunche: An American Life, 1995, Ralph Bunche Readings, and a site and resources related to the award winning PBS documentary "Ralph Bunche -- An American Oddyssey."
African American Towns & Settlements of Illinois
During Antebellum Period
City, Town or Settlement Name |
Date Founded |
County |
Chicago |
1790s |
Cook |
Peoria |
1773s |
Peoria |
Africa |
1813 |
Williamson |
Pond Settlement |
1812 or 13 |
Saline |
South America |
1816 |
Saline |
Pin Oak |
1819 |
Madison |
Stites |
1819 |
Madison |
Rocky Fork |
1828 |
Madison |
Brooklyn |
1830 |
St. Clair |
New Philadelphia |
1836 |
Union |
Eden |
? |
Randolph |
Miller Grove |
1841 |
Pope |
Hunterstown |
1820s |
Madison |
Wood Station |
1820s |
Madison |
Mound City |
1844 |
Pulaski |
Belleville |
1814 |
St. Clair |
South Pass |
? |
Union |
Ullin Settlement |
? |
Pulaski |
Villa Ridge Settlement |
? |
Pulaski |
Grayson |
1829 ? |
Saline |
Unknown Settlement – Newport? |
1819 |
Massac |
Normal |
1835 |
McLean |
Ford Heights |
1848 |
Cook |
Hopkins Park / Pembroke Twnshp |
1850 |
Kankakee |
Galesburg (Black Settlement) |
1837 |
Knox |
Valmeyer |
? |
Monroe |
.
Black Settlements and Towns founded after Civil War
Bellwood |
Robbins |
Harvey |
Markham |
Maywood |
East St. Louis |
Mounds |
Rock Island |
Evanston |
Venice |
Washington Park |
Springfield |
Contemporary Black Towns – majority black population after 1960s
City or Town |
Harvey |
Calumet Park |
Country Club Hills |
Dixmoor |
Dolton |
Glenwood |
Hazel Crest |
Matteson |
Olympia Fields |
Phoenix |
Richton Park |
Riverdale |
South Holland |
University Park |