{"id":7023,"date":"2025-05-14T05:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T05:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/?page_id=7023"},"modified":"2026-07-23T16:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T16:21:09","slug":"prelude-to-the-convention","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/1853-convention\/prelude-to-the-convention\/","title":{"rendered":"Prelude to the Convention"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In the early 1850s, Black residents of Illinois had much to be proud of. Despite the racism they faced, they had started businesses and schools while also giving time and resources to battles against slavery and racial prejudice. Early in 1853, however, Black Illinoisans encountered a new threat. The state legislature passed a law designed to ban Black migration to the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The law, spearheaded by Democrat John A. Logan, stated that African Americans who entered Illinois and stayed longer than ten days could be charged with a \u201chigh misdemeanor\u201d and, if convicted, forced to pay a hefty fine. People who were unable to pay the fine faced imprisonment and sale at public auction to a purchaser who paid the fine (and court fees) and was then entitled to the labor of the convicted person for an agreed-upon amount of time. The 1853 Illinois law was one of the harshest passed in northern states before the Civil War. As it could result in people being forced to labor without pay, many called it the \u201cSlave Law.\u201d[1]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Cover Page of Illinois 1853 Slave Law<\/strong>
\u201cAn act to prevent the immigration of free Negroes into this State.\u201d
(Source: Secretary of State, \u201cEnrolled Acts of the General Assembly,\u201d Record Series 103.030, Illinois State Archives<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Clipping from article in Frederick Douglass\u2019 Paper<\/em><\/strong>
The \u201cSlave Law\u201d in Illinois drew national attention. This article, titled \u201cInfernal Legislation,\u201d appeared in Frederick Douglass\u2019 Paper <\/em>on April 1, 1853. (Source: Courtesy of Accessible Archives<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Chicago-based Western Citizen <\/em>newspaper was appalled by the law, saying it was \u201cbased on injustice\u201d and outmatched the \u201cbarbarity\u201d of the notorious Fugitive Slave Law passed by Congress three years earlier.[2]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black Chicagoans immediately protested the 1853 law. To emphasize that they belonged in the city, they held a public campaign to raise money for a new A.M.E. church building. In March, Black women hosted at least two fundraising \u201ctea parties.\u201d The Western Citizen <\/em>told its readers that donations to the church would help Black Chicagoans fight back against marginalization and oppression.[3]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The existing Quinn Chapel, located on Jackson Street, was already a center of Black politics. In May 1853, Black Chicagoans held a mass meeting there to discuss the \u201cembarrassed and distracted state of our unfortunate and down trodden fellow countrymen.\u201d At the meeting, Henry O. Wagoner<\/a>, William Johnson, and John Jones<\/a> called for a statewide Black convention, the first of its kind for Illinois. R. J. Robinson<\/a> traveled to the meeting from Alton and urged support for a plan, developed by the Wood River Colored Baptist Association, to raise money to support schools for Black children. Attendees agreed that a statewide convention was the best way for Black Illinoisans to \u201cbring about a more general activity in the work of\u2026[their] own redemption.\u201d They elected a committee to publicize the forthcoming event.[4]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chicago-based agitation against the 1853 law had national repercussions. In March, Wagoner explained in a letter to Frederick Douglass\u2019 Paper<\/em> that the Illinois Assembly had passed a \u201chell-black and heaven-daring enactment.\u201d It was time, he said, for the \u201cmost active, thoughtful, prudent, and efficient [Black] men\u201d to come together for a national meeting of African Americans.[5]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Interior of Corinthian Hall, 1851<\/strong>
An 1851 engraving of Corinthian Hall in Rochester, N.Y., where the National Colored Convention was held in July of 1853. (Source: Illustrated American supplement, by T.W. Strong. Sep. 1851, Rochester Public Library Local History Division<\/a> picture file. Courtesy of Rochester Public Library, Monroe County Library System.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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This was a somber and frightening time for Black northerners. Many doubted that progress on issues of slavery and race was possible. Frederick Douglass agreed with Wagoner and called for a national convention to meet in Rochester on July 6-8, 1853. Jones, Wagoner, Rev. Byrd Parker<\/a>, and James D. Bonner<\/a> comprised the Illinois delegation to the Rochester convention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the convention, delegates were united in their commitment to fighting for free and enslaved Black people, but they disagreed about how to meet their goals. The topics of white-sponsored colonization and Black voluntary emigration proved especially contentious, foreshadowing debates at the Illinois state convention that fall. Discussions also touched on topics that resonated with the experiences of Black Illinoisans. In an \u201cAddress to the People of the United States,\u201d leaders of the convention denounced \u201coppressive laws\u2026 which aim[ed] at the expatriation of free people of color.\u201d[6] <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the vehement debate, the national convention\u2019s statement to the American people unequivocally claimed African Americans\u2019 status as American citizens and proclaimed their right to protection from the government of the land of their birth. Jones, Parker, Wagoner and Bonner left Rochester ready to apply all they had seen and heard to the fight for Black rights and dignity back in Illinois.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sources<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

1. Kate Masur, Until Justice Be Done: America\u2019s First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction <\/em>(New York: W. W. Norton, 2021), 241-242.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. \u201cRemarks of Z. Eastman at the Fair of the African Methodist Episcopal Church,\u201d Western Citizen, <\/em>April 5, 1853.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. \u201cThe African Methodist Church,\u201d Western Citizen, <\/em>April 5, 1853; Masur, Until Justice Be Done<\/em>, 245.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. \u201cMeeting of the Colored People,\u201d Western Citizen, <\/em>May 3, 1853.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. \u201cLetter from H.O. Wagoner,\u201d Frederick Douglass\u2019 Paper, <\/em>March 18, 1853.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. Colored national convention (1853 : Rochester, NY), \u201cProceedings of the Colored national convention, held in Rochester, July 6th, 7th, and 8th, 1853,\u201d 9, Colored Conventions Project Digital Records, accessed Jan. 10, 2022, https:\/\/omeka.coloredconventions.org\/items\/show\/458<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Credits<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Written by Mikala Stokes and Marquis Taylor. Edited by Kate Masur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the early 1850s, Black residents of Illinois had much to be proud of. Despite the racism they faced, they had started businesses and schools while also giving time and resources to battles against slavery and racial prejudice. Early in 1853, however, Black Illinoisans encountered a new threat. The state legislature passed a law designed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":6829,"parent":7021,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7023","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7023"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7581,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7023\/revisions\/7581"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7021"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}