Yes, each case was different. There was one particular lady who was housed in the local jail for over a year. She said she was a slave, but that her owner lived in Virginia and left her here with no papers. She was about 65 years old; the sheriff was tired of keeping her jailed, but no one wanted to "buy" her because of her age. He had made attempts to find her owner. Don't know what became of her though as her name disappears from the records.

If the people at Carthage didn't have papers filed stating that they were free (papers were to be with them on their person); then they could have easily been sold into slavery. They had no rights without their freedmen papers and little rights with them. Sometimes freed slaves were taken down river and sold as runaways. Others were sometimes kidnapped and sold. Also, at one particular time freed slaves had to pay a large yearly fee to retain their freedom, otherwise they were sold. I'll see if I can find out anything else for you, but the history book you got your information from is probably correct. Slave catchers were abundant in Illinois; and a law was passed (forget the exact year) that anyone could be "deputized" by the slave catchers at a moment's notice.

Lincoln had an odd way of thinking as far as I'm concerned. His remedy for emancipation was to send everyone of color to colonies, out of the U.S. soil.

Some of the saddest cases are those who were freed under the first EP act from western KY. When they were freed & taken from their "confederate" owners, they also lost their homes and anything else they may have had. There were no provisions for them as freedmen in KY, but they weren't allowed into the "free" states. Whole families died because of starvation or diseases that they couldn't have treated. Others were shot for stealing food to feed their families (the Federal Gov. took control of farms, etc.).

Oddly enough, our state motto is still "Land of Lincoln"!!
Ann