Volume 5:1

Migration in Illinois history is a grand theme. Individuals, ideas, and cultures migrating through Illinois have all made our state what it is today. Some individuals remained permanently. Others paused for a while before moving on to influence other places.

For your classroom use in this volume you will find examples of each of these aspects of migration along with a third example — those altering their distinctive ways. "Freedom's Early Ring," the first selection, brings to light the little-known fact that some early slaveholders released their slaves in Illinois. Ambivalence toward slavery characterized its legal foundation in early Illinois. Migrating slaveholders dared not risk their human property on uncertain legal protection. The second selection, "Foreign Immigrants in Illinois, 1850," describes how migrating Europeans helped settle Illinois by 1850. As a by-product of the first two selections, your students can further appreciate Illinois' panoramic past, for juxtaposed with those who endured slavery before it was abolished during the Civil War were settlers freely seeking their future in the Prairie State.

Illinois' multiculturalism emerges again in the third selection, "From Immigration to Integration." Jews who introduced commerce and culture to frontier Quincy established urban traditions before some again moved on. Quincy's Jewish community thus reminds us that Illinois places usually portray larger themes. We see through Abraham Jonas's championing of Abraham Lincoln on the eve of the Civil War that local activity can engage the national destiny with significant force. Lastly, "The People's College" tells of Illinois' past in promoting a system of public higher education which, as one of the authors reminded us, "no nation had ever done."

The four sets of curriculum materials and readings in this volume are but a few of the possibilities that might be offered on how migrating individuals, ideas, and cultures formed our state. However, this volume's four are an inviting introduction. You will surely see other opportunities for teaching migration in Illinois history. Illinois is a richly diverse state with often vital contrasts. Yet we can educate for a common future by embracing our disparate pasts.

Keith A. Sculle
Editor
ILLINOIS HISTORY TEACHER