Decades before the Civil War, Illinois meant freedom for those seeking to escape slavery. Larry McClellan’s Onward to Chicago: Freedom Seekers and the Underground Railroad in Northeastern Illinois is his third book exploring the phenomenon known as the Underground Railroad.

McClellan, a resident of Crete, Illinois, some 35 miles south of Chicago, served as a professor of sociology at Governors State University, the Chicago school he helped found 54 years ago.

“It was neither underground nor a railroad,” said McClellan. The Underground Railroad was a freedom movement that depended on a fundamental human situation, he said. “When people on the run showed up at the door, the folks who lived on a farm had to make a human decision: are we going to help these folks?”

“The thing most striking to me is how ordinarily human this all becomes. There were people running for their freedom and other people saying, my gosh, we have to help,” said McClellan.

“Perhaps the stories of secret hiding places, tunnels, and other collaborations kept deeply hidden were experienced in other parts of Illinois and other states,” noted McClellan. “However in Chicago and northern Illinois, in large part because of broad-based abolitionist sentiments by the 1850s, activists needed to be discrete but not totally secretive.”

That doesn’t mean there weren’t dangers for those who sought to help people find freedom. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 strengthened penalties on those who assisted freedom seekers. “Its passage terrorized Black people across the northern states, creating fear for settled families as well as for freedom seekers traveling toward Canada. The new law meant that places such as Chicago and other places in northeastern Illinois were no longer outside the reach of slave catchers and kidnappers,” he said.

Illinois was classified as a free state but that label could be misleading, he said. “In southern Illinois, the population was overwhelmingly pro-slavery. When we get to central Illinois—places like Springfield and Peoria where folks followed the Illinois River—sentiment is mixed with a substantially larger number of people who are anti-slavery (compared to southern Illinois),” said McClellan.

The Underground Railroad operated through Peoria and neighboring communities, he said. “On both sides of the Illinois River, you literally had hundreds of people who were walking on their way to freedom. They were coming through,” said McClellan.

The number of people who actually “ran” the Underground Railroad was very small, he said. Within the general population, there may have been a majority that considered themselves opposed to slavery but only a minority of those were abolitionists, individuals calling for the repeal of slavery. Smaller still within the abolitionist group were those people willing to break the law and help people escape, said McClellan.

McClellan, whose research on the Underground Railroad spans three decades, estimates that 3,000 to 4,500- freedom seekers came through northeastern Illinois. The total number of people who sought freedom across the country through the Underground Railroad is estimated to be between 30,000 to 50,000, he said.

“We have great journey stories and, in addition, we have a great set of location stories, places where freedom seekers found help and places that began to be identified as places of refuge. Here in Illinois, we can document at least 200 places where freedom seekers found help. In my research some 60 sites in northeastern Illinois alone have been identified,” said McClellan.

McClellan said information on the operation of the Underground Railroad throughout the state will soon be submitted to the Illinois Legislature. He also announced that work is underway on documenting the Chicago to Detroit Freedom Trail, a route taken by many freedom seekers who sought refuge in Canada.