Farmers Weekly Review

By Karen Haave

Caroline Quarlls’s travels on the Underground Railroad included Crete. She reached Canada and freedom in 1842.

A new curriculum developed for Crete-Monee schools this fall features a young enslaved woman, her search for freedom and her role in the local Underground Railroad.

The week-long unit offered in some classes in grades six through 12 will highlight the story of Caroline Quarlls’ journey to freedom in the context of social emotional skills.

Teachers will decide when and how to use the lesson plan, said Valerie Butron of the Will County Regional Office of Education Professional Development Alliance. She developed the course with School District 201U teachers William Fitzgerald, Kimberly Moore, Mark O’Connor and Sarah Valerio.

Butron explained that the program took form after conversations with Crete-Monee High School Social Sciences Division Leader, David Hall. That incorporated collaboration with local experts and historians, including Dr. Larry McClellan, the Crete Area Historical Society, and Monee Historical Society, she noted.

“(It is) a specific teacher professional development project that focuses on social science, social emotional learning and connections to local history of the Underground Railroad in Crete and Monee,” she said.

“Its focus is on highlighting the journey of freedom seeker Caroline Quarlls, in the context of how she and the abolitionists living in Crete, Illinois, who offered Caroline aid, embodied social emotional skills that are essential for students today.

“It emphasizes responsibility, self-awareness, social awareness, decision-making and the history of the Underground Railroad in Illinois.”

Key concepts of the lesson include defining “freedom seekers” — people who risked everything to escape the institution of slavery. Some textbooks and sources refer to them as fugitive slaves or runaway slaves.

However, the term “Freedom Seeker” places the emphasis on the humanity and bravery of the person who is fleeing the unjust system instead of their inhumane status within that system.

Freedom seekers used all methods of transportation available to them at the time, the lesson notes. In Illinois, rivers would have been a major path to freedom due to the Mississippi, Ohio, and Illinois rivers.

Freedom seekers traveling by foot or stagecoach would have traveled along the roads and trails as well. Some major roads and trails included the Sauk Trail. As railroads expanded, freedom seekers would have utilized trains as well. The main destination of freedom seekers traveling through Illinois was Detroit, Michigan.

Once they were able to arrive in Detroit, they only had to cross the Detroit River to get to Ontario, Canada. The British Empire abolished slavery in Canada in 1833.

Students would use critical thinking to determine why Illinois’s geography and location place it in an important position for freedom seekers.

The unit also defines “abolitionists” — those who wanted to end the practice of slavery in the United States. and “Radical Abolitionists,” those willing to actively work against the institution of slavery in ways that were both legal and breaking the law of the time.

While most members of the communities described in the passage were not radical in the sense that they took up arms against the authorities of the time, they were willing to challenge what they saw as unjust laws with the direct action of assisting freedom seekers. Students are asked to use their critical thinking to determine how communities of active abolitionists would impact freedom seekers.

Who was Caroline Quarlls?

Caroline Quarlls was the first enslaved person to travel through the Wisconsin UGRR by way of several areas in Will County, including Crete. She reached Canada and freedom in 1842.

She fled slavery on July 4 that year, a significant date because it is a holiday. Caroline had been telling her grandmother that she was going to leave, but her grandmother did not believe her because she was only 16.

Caroline’s father was Caucasian and came from a well-known, wealthy family. Her grandfather, who claimed ownership over her, fought in the Revolutionary War. He then made his way to the St. Louis area along the Mississippi River and set up a home. Her mother was enslaved, and nothing is known of her except her age. The lesson explains that Caroline left her family because of the violence she experienced.

“As would the case for be for so many others, Caroline traveled overland from the Crete area, through northwest Indiana and on across Michigan to Canada,” McClellan wrote in one of his books. “She settled in western Ontario, married and raised a family.”

Positive reactions

Butron said C-M District teachers’ reactions have been “Positive. They appreciate the connection to local history and showing students how social-emotional skills have impacted important changes in society.”

For Tim Piepenbrink, vice president of the Crete Area Historical Society, the new curriculum is one more program it sponsors featuring local history.

“CAHS has been giving programs on local historic topics for many years,” he said, “and this program is an extension of those efforts and also reflected in our Mission Statement.

“Our recent purchase of the Crete Congregational Church building, and with our inclusion in the US Park Service’s Network to Freedom program, we are now able to share our UGRR story right here in Crete at our building.

“Pioneer families in Crete were actually part of the movement by hiding Freedom Seekers in their homes and barns as they traveled through our area — all the way back to the 1830s.

“Valerie Butron and her team of teachers has put together an outstanding program about Freedom Seekers and the Underground Railroad in Illinois, and we are pleased to see that local history can be taught to our children and adults as part of that curriculum.

“They have drawn on the knowledge of local experts, such as Dr. Larry McClellan, and from other local history archives.

“CAHS looks forward to participating in lectures and guiding tours about local involvement in this important part of our American history. “This story is much deeper than words on paper and stories told in 2023. It will be exciting for all to hear and feel the history through this program.”

McClellan, Professor Emeritus at Governors State University and author of several books detailing local involvement in the UGRR, is very happy with the new curriculum.

“Black History Month is always a bit frustrating for me,” he said. “I do a lot of programs during the month. However, I am keenly aware that in schools across Illinois, the Underground Railroad gets mentioned, but it is generally something about Harriet Tubman.

“That is great, but there is so much to say about activity in Illinois. In the decades before the Civil War more than 3,000 freedom seekers came through northeastern Illinois, and yet this is usually never discussed.

“So, I am delighted that a group of teachers at District 201-U have developed a very solid curriculum unit on the UGRR in Illinois.

“I am pleased that one of my books is the source for part of this unit. The story of Caroline Quarlls is remarkable as that of a young woman escaping her enslavement and on her way to Canada and freedom, she stops in Crete! This is history in our own backyard!”

Christi Holston, president of the Monee Historical Society, lauded the CAHS and its support for the classroom lesson.

“The Crete Historical Society’s new home is an actual, verified site on the Underground Railroad and we encourage everyone to visit them there as soon as they are open to the public,” she said.

“Valerie and her team have done an excellent job in taking the history of Caroline Quarlls, a freedom Seeker who found aid and support at Crete’s Underground Railroad stop. The curriculum Valerie and her team have developed makes this history come alive for the next generation.

Holston said the Monee Historical Society has known McClellan for nearly 10 years through the interesting and informative programs on the Underground Railroad he has presented for the community on several occasions over the years.

Holston noted McClellan’s three books on the subject are available at the center and are all “fascinating accounts of the UGRR activity in our own area.”

“We at the MHS are proud to assist in bringing forward this important and largely unknown local history.”

Karen Haave is a freelance reporter.