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The Illinois Freedom Project & The Underground Railroad


An outgrowth of an educational program that engages young people with African American history in Illinois, The Illinois Freedom Project exhibition traces Black Illinoisans’ struggles for freedom from the French Colonial era to early-20th-century Chicago. Found in the Library's Audio Visual/Periodicals Room, this exhibition is running Jan. 3rd - Feb. 5th. The Illinois Freedom Project is touring the state in conjunction with the Smithsonian Voices and Votes: Democracy in America, also on exhibition at the Vespasian Warner Public Library.


After walking through The Illinois Freedom Project you might want to check out the following books featuring the Underground Railroad available at your Library!

 

Book cover with the Illinois state outline filled with a train track
The Underground Railroad in Illinois by Glennette Tilley Turner

The Underground Railroad in Illinois

by Glennette Tilley Turner


Uses maps, rare photographs, background information, and activities to explore the history of the underground railroad in Illinois.

Adult Non-Fiction - HIST > U.S./IL > General > TUR










Book cover with a drawing of a young African-American slave girls
A Picture of Freedom by Patricia C. McKissack

A Picture of Freedom:

The Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl

By Patricia C. McKissack


In 1859 twelve-year-old Clotee, a house slave who must conceal the fact that she can read and write, records in her diary her experiences and her struggle to decide whether to escape to freedom.

Juvenile Fiction - J McKissack P









Book Cover with a drawing of young African-American children standing in front of a cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Uncle Tom's Cabin

by Harriet Beecher Stowe


Eliza Harris, a slave whose child is to be sold, escapes her beloved home on the Shelby plantation in Kentucky and heads North, eludes the hired slave catchers and is aided by the underground railroad. Another slave, UncleTom, is sent "down the river" for sale and ultimately endures a martyr's death under the whips of Simon Legree's overseers.

Adult Fiction - LIT > Classics > STO






Book cover with a painting of Harriet Tubman flying with 2 young children & a baby over a train.
Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky by Faith Ringgold


Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky

by Faith Ringgold


With Harriet Tubman as her guide, Cassie retraces the steps escaping slaves took on the Underground Railroad in order to reunite with her younger brother.

Children's Picture Book - JE Ringgold F








Book cover with a painting of an African-American man in a revolutionary war uniform and a modern man with a glass bottle & old beads.
Freedom Roads by Joyce Hansen & Gary McGowean

Freedom Roads

by Joyce Hansen & Gary McGowan


The Underground Railroad was meant to be a set of secret pathways, and its traces have been obscured by time. But Joyce Hansen and Gary McGowan, who won a Coretta Scott King Honor for their previous book, show how archaeologists and historians sift through corn cobs and root cellars, study songs and quilts, and use the latest technology to reconstruct those heroic journeys.

Juvenile Non-Fiction -

J UNITED STATES History 1830 - 1865




Stop in anytime during regular Library hours to view

The Illinois Freedom Project exhibition in the Audio Visual/Periodicals Room from Jan. 3rd- Feb. 5th!

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