Aiding the Freedmen

In June 1864 meetings were held in Springfield to collect money and goods to aid newly-freed slaves—then commonly referred to as freedmen—in the South. Such efforts saw what might be considered unlikely success in wartime Illinois, a state which had from its earliest years statutes controlling the liberties of African Americans. Hundreds if not thousands contributed to the cause of meeting what were seen as the physical, intellectual, and spiritual needs of people living new lives created by the war.