African-American Records

              T
Jesse White • Secretary of State and State Archivist
ILLINOIS STATE ARCHIVES
Genealogical Research Series Pamphlet No. 6
HIS PAMPHLET IS ONE IN A SERIES DESIGNED TO ASSIST THE GENEALOGICAL researcher In
using the most pertinent of related federal, state, and local governmental records in the
possession of the Illinois State Archives and its Illinois Regional Archives Depository (IRAD)
system. The purpose of this pamphlet is to inform researchers about the Archives’ unique
holdings of Illinois African-American servitude, emancipation, and military service records
from the 18th and 19th centuries.
Servitude and Emancipation Records (1722–1863)
Historical Background
The first Africans to arrive in Illinois came to the French settlements on the Mississippi
in the early 18th century. The director general of mines for the Company of the Indies arrived
with African slaves in 1720. In succeeding years it was not uncommon to find ordinary
Frenchmen owning African as well as Indian slaves. Thus established, the system of slavery
remained in Illinois in one form or another until just after the American Civil War.
By 1732 about 284 slaves lived at the French settlements of Cahokia and Kaskaskia. Of
this number 165 were Africans. French settlers registered their chattel property with the
royal notary. English victory in the French and Indian War and subsequent seizure of the
Illinois country did not alter French practices significantly. When George Rogers Clark and
his Virginia militia conquered the Illinois country in 1778 the slave population totaled no
more than 1,000.
Arthur St. Clair, the governor of the Northwest Territory, arrived in the Illinois country
and established American authority in 1790. Despite the Ordinance of 1787’s prohibition of
slavery, many African-Americans remained in a state of de facto slavery as indentured
servants. The 1800 census of the Indiana Territory, which encompassed the Illinois country,
listed 135 slaves and 163 free persons of African descent. By 1810 the Illinois Territory itself
had 781 African-American residents of which 168 were registered as slaves.
After Illinois achieved statehood in 1818 the General Assembly began enacting a series of
laws known as the “black codes.” These restrictive laws continued the practice of indentured
servitude, denied legal protection to African-Americans, and required local governmental
officials to maintain registers of indentured servants and free Negroes and mulattoes.
The 1820 federal census listed 917 slave and 457 free African-Americans. Ten years later
the numbers were 747 slave and 1,637 free. The 1840 census was the last one to record free
and slave African-Americans in Illinois. For that year there were 331 slave and 3,598 free
African-Americans in Illinois. The 1850 and 1860 censuses enumerated 5,436 and 7,628
African-Americans respectively. Illinois repealed the “black codes” after Union victory in
1865.
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African-American Records