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North of Slavery: The Matson Slave Trial 

June 6, 2025, 2 PM, Old State Capitol

In 1845, Kentucky slaveowner Robert Matson brought several of his slaves to Illinois, where he put them to work on his farm in Coles County. Two years later an enslaved woman named Jane Bryant fled the farm with her four children. Matson turned to the judicial system in Illinois, hiring attorney Abraham Lincoln to help him reclaim his human property. The ensuing freedom suit reveals the complexity of the institution of slavery, its implications for the “free state” of Illinois, and the role the institution played in the Civil War. The talk will examine the critical role the Illinois Supreme Court played in ensuring Illinois developed as a free state and explore why the future Great Emancipator was on the wrong side of history in this case.

Presenter Bio: Samuel Wheeler is a historian specializing in the history of Illinois, the Civil War Era, and the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln. He earned his Ph.D. in history from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. For more than two decades, Dr. Wheeler has worked in the field of public history, most recently serving as the State Historian of Illinois and Director of Research and Collections at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield. He currently serves as the Director of History Programs at the Illinois Supreme Court Historic Preservation Commission.

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Lucy Pettengill, Fighter for Freedom

June 13, 2025, 2 PM Old State Capitol

This program finds Lucy Pettengill, resident of Peoria, IL, in mid-March 1857, very soon after the Supreme Court decision of the Dred Scott Case on 6 March 1857. This decision, and its implications that black people are not citizens of the United States, is the impetus to redouble her efforts of assisting in the abolition and underground railroad (UGRR) activities. This first-person program will cover an overall history of abolitionist movements and actions in Illinois (mostly Western Illinois) up until March 1857, and then will go into details of what she, as a conductor, has experienced while assisting Freedom Seekers.

Since there are so few extant papers in Lucy’s own voice, much of this presentation will be culled from other first-person accounts from conductors on the UGRR in Illinois, whose experiences are very likely similar to Lucy’s.

Presenter Bio: Laura Keyes graduated from UW-Madison with a Master’s Degree in Library Studies, and is a lifetime member of the Association of Lincoln Presenters. Laura recently won the Excellence in Performing Award from that Association. She devotes much of her non-existent spare time to baking, and caring for her cat Mr. Darcy.

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Songs of the Illinois Freedom Road

June 20, 2025, 2 PM, Old State Capitol

Songs of the Illinois Freedom Road is the powerful new musical performance featuring the songs, stories, and struggles of the Illinois Underground Railroad.

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.

Presenter Bio: Chris Vallillo is a singer/songwriter and roots musician who makes the people and places of “unmetropolitan” America come to life in song. He weaves original, contemporary, and traditional songs and narratives into a compelling and entertaining portrait of history. Having spent the last 30 years in the rural Midwest, he has a natural affinity for American roots music.

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Quincy on the Edge: Freedom and Slavery

July 11, 2025, 2 PM, Old State Capitol

Reg Ankrom is the author of two books about 19th century U.S. Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois and contributor and editor of a new volume on John Wood, Illinois’ 12th governor, and contributor to an anthology about the refuge the small town of Quincy provided to 5,700 Latter Day Saints when expelled from Missouri during the winter of 1838-39. Ankrom is working on his third volume in his biography of Douglas.

Quincy in 1845 was at the vanguard of the nation’s push westward, which put it at the heart of the nation’s most troublesome issue, slavery. The community literally and figuratively declared itself for freedom, becoming a refuge for outcast abolitionists and fugitive slaves. This is a look at the city’s anti-slavery story.

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Songs of the Illinois Freedom Road

July 18, 2025, 2 PM, Old State Capitol

Songs of the Illinois Freedom Road is the powerful new musical performance featuring the songs, stories, and struggles of the Illinois Underground Railroad.

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.

Presenter Bio: Chris Vallillo is a singer/songwriter and roots musician who makes the people and places of “unmetropolitan” America come to life in song. He weaves original, contemporary, and traditional songs and narratives into a compelling and entertaining portrait of history. Having spent the last 30 years in the rural Midwest, he has a natural affinity for American roots music.

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Battles, Ambushes, and Freedom Seekers in the 1850s

July 25, 2025, 2 PM, Old State Capitol

Summary: While the “Underground Railroad” may bring to mind freedom seekers’ covert travel and concealment, many escapes from enslavement entailed violent confrontations more akin to combat. This presentation highlights three instances of armed confrontation between groups of freedom seekers and posses of enslavers or bounty hunters, two in Randolph County, Illinois, and one near Springfield. Each of these resulted in profound impacts on the immediate quests for freedom, as well as the longer-term prospects for African Americans in Illinois and the surrounding states in the decade before the Civil War.

Bio: Devin Hunter is Associate Professor of History and Chair of the History Department at the University of Illinois Springfield, where he teaches public history and twentieth-century United States History. His research focus includes the historical development and use of ideals of cultural diversity, as well as the history of commemoration and the present-day memorialization of historical trauma and difficult pasts.

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

August 1, 2025, 2 PM, Old State Capito

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 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.

Presenter Bios: John Lupton, Executive Director, Illinois Supreme Court Historic Preservation Commission. Samuel Wheeler, Director of History Programs, Illinois Supreme Court Historic Preservation Commission