Religious societies were early organized, but the building of churches was not then common. In 1796 a Baptist society was organized, and previous to this time both Baptists and Methodists, without organized societies, had united in holding prayer-meetings in which the Bible and published sermons were read, prayers offered, and hymns sung.[482] Before the close of the century the Methodists organized. The Presbyterians were prominent in the early years of statehood, but in 1818 they were just beginning their work in Illinois.[483] Meetings were usually held in private houses until such time as the congregation felt that a church building should be erected, or at least until some one felt the need, for the first church was sometimes built by a few individuals.[484] Ministers were of two types—those who devoted all of their time to religious work and traveled over large areas, and those who [pg 175] combined ministerial duties with farming, hunting, or some other frontier occupation. Neither class received much money. Peter Cartwright, one of the most famous pioneer preachers, received $40 one year (1824-25) and $60 the next—and this he considered good wages.[485] Pioneer energy was displayed in the overcoming of difficulties. For more than ten years the Baptists held meetings on alternate months at two places thirty-six miles apart, and several families regularly traveled that distance to the two-days' meeting, even in unfavorable weather—and this, too, after Illinois had become a state.[486] In 1829, the Presbyterians, true to their missionary spirit, occupied the extreme frontier at Galena.[487] Catholicism increased but slowly.[488] Divisions such as were found in the East or South reached Illinois, and at one time the Baptists were divided into three factions, which had about the same kind of fraternal relations as the Jews and the Samaritans. The chief questions for contention were whether or not missionaries should be sent out by the church and whether fellowship with slaveholders should be maintained.[489] An association of anti-slavery Baptists was formed, as also Bible societies and temperance societies.[490] Camp-meetings, with their well-known phenomena, were common in the early years of statehood, and it is no reflection upon their value to say that they were one of the chief diversions for the pioneers.
Chapter VI. Slavery in Illinois As Affecting Settlement.
Slavery, as well as indentured servitude, existed in Illinois as late as 1845,[491] and the “Black Laws” of the state were repealed on February 7, 1865.[492] From 1787 until years after 1830 the slavery question was an unsettled one. In addition to the arguments for or against the institution that were used everywhere, the pro-slavery party in Illinois asserted that as the Ordinance of 1787 guaranteed to the French inhabitants their property, the French could hold slaves, and that as all citizens of a state had equal rights other persons in Illinois could hold slaves. The reply was that the Ordinance plainly forbade slavery.[493]
Whatever the merits of the argument, slavery did exist in Illinois. The fear of the French that they might lose their slaves, and the desire to attract slaveholders to Illinois, led to determined and repeated efforts to legalize slavery. Early in 1796 a petition was sent from Kaskaskia to Congress, praying that the anti-slavery article in the Ordinance of 1787 might be either repealed or so altered as to permit the introduction of slaves from the original states or elsewhere into the country of Illinois, that a law might be enacted permitting the introduction of such slaves as servants for life, and that it might be declared [pg 177] for what period the children of such servants should serve the masters of their parents. This petition was signed by four men, including some of the largest landowners in Illinois, but as the petition, while purporting to come from Illinois alone, concerned the entire Northwest Territory, as there was no indication that the four petitioners represented Illinois sentiment, and as the congressional committee was informed that many of the inhabitants of the territory did not desire the proposed change, the prayer of the petition was denied.[494]
In 1800, two hundred and sixty-eight inhabitants of Illinois, chiefly French, petitioned Congress to repeal the anti-slavery provision of the Ordinance, stating that many of the inhabitants were crossing the Mississippi with their slaves. The petition was not considered.[495] A similar request, presented late in 1802, was twice reported upon by committees, one report (Randolph's) declaring that the growth of Ohio proved that a lack of slavery would not seriously retard settlement, while the other was in favor of suspending the anti-slavery article for ten years, the male descendants of immigrating slaves to be free at the age of twenty-five years, and the females at twenty-one.[496] In 1805 a majority of the members of the respective houses of the Indiana legislature petitioned for the repeal of the anti-slavery article, and this petition was closely followed by a memorial from Illinois expressing the hope that the general government would not pass unnoticed the act of the last legislature authorizing the importation of slaves into the territory. It violated the Ordinance, the memorialists declared, and although they desired slavery they [pg 178] professed themselves to be law-abiding.[497] A committee report on the petition and memorial recommended that permission to import slaves into Indiana (then including Illinois) for ten years be granted, in order that the evil effects of slavery might be mitigated by its dispersion, but no legislation resulted from the report,[498] and the next year petitioning was resumed. The legislature sent resolutions asking for the suspension of the anti-slavery article, and elaborating the argument for such suspension. A committee of which the territorial delegate from Indiana was chairman, presented a favorable report.[499]
In September, 1807, a petition for the suspension of the anti-slavery article was sent to Congress from the Indiana legislature. It was signed by Jesse B. Thomas, later author of the Missouri Compromise, but then Speaker of the territorial House of Representatives, and resident in what was to become the State of Indiana, and by the president pro tem. of the Legislative Council. Action in committee was adverse,[500] Congress being then busied with the question of the abolition of the slave trade.
During the territorial period in Illinois (1809-1818), the slavery question was not much agitated. The Constitution of 1818 provided that slaves could not be thereafter brought into the State, except such as should be brought under contract to labor at the Saline Creek salt works, said contract to be limited to one year, although renewable, and the proviso to be void after 1825, but existing slavery was not abolished, and existing indentures—and some were [pg 179] for ninety-nine years[501]—should be carried out. Male children of slaves or indentured servants should be free at the age of twenty-one and females at eighteen.[502] In Congress, as has been seen, Tallmadge, of New York, objected to admitting Illinois before she abolished slavery, but his objection was ineffectual.