Onward to Chicago: Freedom Seekers and the Underground Railroad in Northeastern Illinois

Abstract

Larry A. McClellan, drawing on a breadth of archival sources, brings an invigorating narrative to freedom seekers in Northeastern Illinois. McClellan’s compelling account tells the “complex and deeply human stories of freedom seekers” while underscoring “that the Underground Railroad did not shape the movement of freedom seekers.” Rather, as McClellan contends, their movements “gave shape to what became the networks known as the Underground Railroad.”