While the exhibit is hosted at the Springfield Public Library, there are numerous programs to expand the city’s Underground Railroad story in the community. Take advantage of the wonderful opportunities noted below.

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Jameson Jenkins and the Underground Railroad

October 21, 2024, 6 PM, Lincoln Library

Lincoln Home National Historic Site Historian, Tim Townsend will talk about Jameson Jenkins and the underground railroad. Abraham Lincoln’s neighbor, Jameson Jenkins, played an important role in the hopes of freedom seekers passing through Springfield, Illinois from Illinois’ bordering slave states of Kentucky and Missouri, and beyond. The National Park Service acquired the Jenkins lot in January of 1978; ensuring that archeological resources related to the home of Jameson Jenkins are preserved. On Lincoln’s birthday, February 12, 2008, the Jenkins lot was formally included into the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom and the National Park Service is continuing it’s efforts to tell the Jameson Jenkins and Underground Railroad stories.

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The Presumption of Freedom: The Illinois Supreme Court and the Fate of Slavery in the Prairie State

October 28, 2024, 6 PM, Lincoln Library

Though Illinois entered the Union as a free state in 1818, slavery continued to exist within its borders for decades. Freedom seekers, abolitionists, and pro-slavery forces turned to the judicial system to determine the fate of slavery in Illinois. This talk by John Lupton and Samuel Wheeler of the Illinois Supreme Court Historic Preservation Commission will highlight several of the nearly two dozen slave cases that reached the Illinois Supreme Court and examine the Court’s role in ending slavery in the Prairie State.

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Songs of the Illinois Freedom Road

November 2, 2024, 2 PM, Lincoln Library

Award-winning folk musician Chris Vallillo presents Songs of the Illinois Freedom Road on Saturday, November 2, 2024 2 PM at the Lincoln Library 326 S. 7th Street Springfield, IL.
The show features rare first-person accounts of freedom seekers who passed through Illinois. Highlighted stories include John and Mary Little, who traveled on foot 140 miles to Chicago, and George Burroughs, a black Canadian who worked on the Illinois Central Railroad where he helped smuggle escapees to freedom.

Vallillo extensively researched the subject using primary source documents such as the 1857 Slave Narratives of Canada and the WPA Slave Narratives as well as the most recent scholarship on the subject. Vallillo combines these powerful stories with eleven historic songs that were sung by the enslaved to inspire and share knowledge among themselves.

Learn more

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Underground Railroad Walk 
Wednesdays

October 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 & Nov 6, 12, 20 & 27 at 1:30 PM

Departs from the Lincoln Home National Historic Site Visitor Center

Join Marcel Tworek of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources on 45-minute walking tour to several significant Underground Railroad locations. This tour includes visits to the Old State Capitol and the Lincoln Home National Historic Site and explores other lesser-known locations around the city. Each stop details Springfield’s importance to the Underground Railroad and the historical figures associated with them. Meet outside the Lincoln Home Visitor Center.

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Conductor Jameson Jenkins Homesite

Lincoln Home National Historic Site, 426 S. 7th Street Springfield, Illinois 62701

Abraham Lincoln’s neighbor, African American Jameson Jenkins, was a conductor on the Underground Railroad. In 1850, Jenkins helped a group of freedom seekers in their journey north from slavery. Today, visitors to Lincoln Home National Historic Site can learn about Jenkins and his work for freedom at the site where his home stood, just five lots south of Lincoln home. You can learn more about the Jenkins family’s daily life from artifacts discovered during an archeological dig at the homesite. The display case is in the Lincoln Home visitor center.

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“Lincoln’s Springfield”

Lincoln Home National Historic Site, 426 S. 7th Street Springfield, Illinois 62701

A new self-guided exhibit explores the lives of six individuals and the impact they made on their community through graphic narratives including two Underground Railroad Conductors. Visitors will leave this exhibit with an appreciation of how the diversity of people found in Abraham Lincoln’s Springfield represents the vision of American promise that Lincoln held dear.

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Underground Storywalk

Lincoln Memorial Garden 2301 E. Lake Shore Dr. Springfield, IL 62712

Explore the storywalk just outside the nature center and learn about the Underground Railroad by reading the story Underground by Shane W. Evans.