Illinois Bicentennial Lecture Series from the Center For Historical Interpretation

 'Round About Midnight:  Slavery and Freedom in the Land of Lincoln’

M. Scott Heerman, University of Miami

Thursday, November 8, 2018 at 4:00 

217 Gregory Hall, 810 S. Wright St., Urbana

When did Illinois become a free state? Spanning a century and a half, M. Scott Heerman will trace the making, remaking, and eventual unmaking of slavery in Illinois. Drawing from his new book, The Alchemy of Slavery*, he shows that over its long history Illinois went from Indian Country to European Empire, from a border south region to bulwark of the free north. Each moment of transition over Illinois's long history reveals new elements of the black freedom struggle and the making of a free society.

*The Alchemy of Slavery: Human Bondage and Emancipation in the Illinois Country, 1730-1865