It's Curious City, where we take your questions about Chicago and the region, and investigate, report, explore, from WBEZ.

I'm Olivia Richardson.

Curious City was asked several questions about the Underground Railroad in Chicago and across Illinois.

People wanted to know if there were stops or safe houses in

Chicago. Places where fugitives from slavery, who we now call freedom seekers, could rest on their

way to freedom. The answer is yes, but the details are hard to find. Only a handful of the places

associated with the Underground Railroad are

documented. To understand that history in Chicago, it's important to know that before 1850,

Chicago was a terminus or a destination. It was a relatively safe place for formerly enslaved black

people. However, in 1850, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, which allowed

so-called slave catchers to come north in pursuit of people escaping enslavement.

And anybody who interfered with those slave catchers or helped freedom seekers could be fined or even sent to

prison. It was a really absolutely atrocious law, one of the kind of really evil laws in the

history of the American legal system. This is Larry McClellan, Professor Emeritus at Governor's State

University. He explains, that law made Chicago much

less safe for formerly enslaved people. The act of 1850 essentially guaranteed that the only way

that freedom seekers would be freed would be if they made their way to Canada.

Historian Ted Karamanski says this law prompted black people in Chicago to organize

to help freedom seekers avoid capture.

And so they developed a strong network of informants,

and they had an ability to kind of come together at short notice

if one of the members of the African American community

...