This image is the cover for the book Enslavement and the Underground Railroad in Missouri and Illinois, American Heritage

Enslavement and the Underground Railroad in Missouri and Illinois, American Heritage

The Path to Freedom in Missouri and Illinois

People enslaved here experienced the same horrors as those held captive in other states, and their stories of courage and perseverance are amazing. Priscilla Baltimore purchased her own emancipation and founded a freedom village. Caroline Quarlls escaped to Canada. Many who fled for their lives spent time bunkered in the basement of Hanson House. The region's Congregationalists brought a fiery. brand of abolitionism. And Prairie Park still holds the faded "haint" blue paint traditionally used on slave dwellings. Author Julia Nicolai details these and other adjective stories.

Julie D. Nicolai

Julie Nicolai is a local St. Louis historian and has been studying the Underground Railroad in Missouri, Illinois and Kansas for twenty-five years. She has a BA and MA in art history and archaeology from Washington University in St. Louis and has written articles for the Missouri Historical Society, New York Silver Society and the Morse-Libby Mansion. She is currently working on a book on the silver in the Missouri Historical Society's collections. She lives in St. Louis and loves to travel anywhere to experience the Underground Railroad.

The History Press