Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad: The Geography of Resistance

1. Rocky Fork, Illinois: Oral Tradition as Memory

Chapter 1 Rocky Fork, Illinois Oral Tradition as Memory Communities as old as Rocky Fork carry a large measure of oral tradition and memory. Accounts of the settlement’s activism survived through oral tradition, memory, and newspaper stories, as well as recollections of local families and communities. With much of their history standing outside traditional Underground Railroad narratives, residents were careful to preserve vital elements of the history of the Underground Railroad and of African American self-determination on the nineteenth-century midwestern frontier. Remnants of the free Black settlement at Rocky Fork lie deep in the woods, rolling hills and pastures, and dramatic rock outcroppings of Godfrey, Illinois . Rocky Fork has an importance beyond its historical narrative. The humanity of the men and women shines through in a variety of sources, revealing names, physical descriptions, lifeways, family connections, and community bonds. An early twentieth-century newspaper article captured the essence of the enclave just off Grafton Road,“set back and far away from habitation, just at the fork of two streams which give it its name.”Rocky Fork’s huge glacial boulders mark the rugged land, rendering much of the area unsuitable for farming, although by necessity, Black farmers tilled every usable acre.1 Four Black families purchased adjacent parcels in the heart of Rocky Fork drainage basin, marking the formal beginning of the Rocky Fork community (map 2). The loosely defined boundaries of the settlement shifted over time according to landownership and attendance at the small local AME church. The rebuilt Rocky Fork AME church, a few foundations, and the original terrain are all that survive of the small settlement situated approximately three miles west of Alton, a major Underground Railroad station and one of Illinois’s main abolitionist centers (see map 1).2 22 part i. free black communities Map 2. 1861 Plat map, Madison County, Illinois. 1861 Plat prior to construction of Rocky Fork Church showing names of G. Bell in Section 20, L. Parks in Section 28 and 29, P. Baker in Section 29, and D. A. Spaulding in Sections 28 and 33. 1861 Map of Madison County, Illinois. Holmes and Arnold, Civil Engineers and Map Publishers. Buffalo, NY. Surrounding rivers and intersecting creeks soften the inhospitable contours of the land. Rocky Fork Creek, a small tributary accessible from the Big Piasa Creek, flows through the once thriving settlement. The creek empties into the legendary Mississippi River, affording anonymity and quiet accessibility to those escaping slavery along the border between the free state of Illinois, and Missouri, a slave state. In the years before the Civil War, the river and the Black workers who navigated it were vital partners on the Black pathway to freedom.3 Geography, politics, and location played major roles in populating the original settlement where the river and surrounding waterways facilitated escape from slavery. Rocky Fork’s accessibility from the Mississippi River, to the Big Piasa Creek, to the Rocky Fork Creek, marked the area as a chapter 1. rocky fork, illinois 23 suitable stopping point for escapees from slavery—a secluded, safe refuge, a first stop in the North for those making their way out of slavery via the Kentucky route or crossing to freedom from Missouri. Escapees were in the Rocky Fork area as early as 1816, and free Blacks found the nearby town of Alton a tolerable place to live as early as the 1820s. The abolitionist center and Underground Railroad town of Alton played a powerful role in the fight against slavery in the region. The town commanded an advantageous vantage point south of Rocky Fork on the Mississippi River across from St. Louis. Adding to the tensions of the region, large portions of Illinois maintained a strong proslavery stance, echoing sentiments in cities across the North.Those proslavery sentiments, however, did not stop escapees from making their way from either the Missouri or the Illinois side of the Mississippi River.4 Family Histories The rootedness of the originating families at Rocky Fork offsets the pervasive theme of African American migration. Families and communities and their churches had been wedded to the land for more than 170 years. Ann Bell, her mother, Tisch Garnet, and her uncle, Peter Baker, in addition to London Parks, were among the earliest settlers living amid their White neighbors. Land transactions of two prominent White antislavery families, the Spauldings and the Hawleys, shaped the evolution of Rocky Fork as an...