the crowd rushed out of the courthouse, quickly moved towards lovejoy's house, and when owen lovejoy arrived he calmly shut the gate to the property and started to deliver an anti-slavery lecture. while lovejoy was speaking, a rioter on horseback bolted from the barn and people yelled, "there goes john! there goes john!" the pro-slavery people in the crowd immediately went after the rioter. lovejoy continued to give his speech. shortly thereafter a horsedrawn carriage left the barn, sitting next to the driver was an individual covered by a sun bonnet. lovejoy went on with his speech, the driver and buckner, who had been camouflaged, escaped in another direction. we do not have enough time to relate all of the accounts and stories about lovejoy's underground railroad activities but let me present one last story which lovejoy discussed on the floor of congress. he had been accused of buying a ticket for an elderly slave and putting him on a railroad passenger car to chicago. by the mid 1850s, the old chicago burlington and quincy railroad had been built and track extended from chicago

ended, lovejoy was acquitted. the most famous underground railroad story associated with owen lovejoy unfolded in the late 1840s. a fugitive slave by the name of john buckner had escaped from missouri and taken up residence as a farmhand on the property of enos matson. the farm was close to princeton. the fugitive buckner like many other runaway slaves decided to stay with someone who would employ him until he could accumulate enough money to make his way to canada. in 1849, buckner was mowing in matson's meadow when two men, one of whom was his former owner, approached buckner with guns pulled. after buckner was aprprehended the slave catcher was marched toward princeton, the slave tracker's plan to take him to the illinois river where they could transport him down the river to st. louis by boat. a friend of lovejoy's, hensdale phelps, saw them on the road. phelps took a shortcut to lovejoy's house and told him what was going on. lovejoy immediately went to a justice of the peace and got a warrant for the two sla

lovejoy faced a very difficult campaign. and when the final votes were counted he was barely reelected to congress. during the civil war lovejoy returned to illinois in order to help raise five illinois army volunteer companies. he strongly backed efforts to arm black troops during the war. he worked hard to prevent radical abolitionists of being too critical of the war policy. in february of '62 he introduced a bill for the establishment of department of agriculture. this bill gave 160 acres of man to any man or woman who paid a small registration fee and lived on the homestead for five years. during this time frame lovejoy helped pass legislation that ended the slave trade in the district of columbia. in the winter of 1863 lovejoy started to experience poor healthism even though his physical well being continue today decline seriously he pressed hard for the war effort and vigorously supported lincoln's plans for reelection. on the 16th of march, 1864 ailing badly from liver and kidney disease owen lovejoy died in brooklyn

lovejoy.tal historical society hosted this 40-minute program. >> good morning. first of all let me do a sound check. can i be heard? very good. well cop, i'm don kenyon, vice president of the united states capital historical society and it's my pleasure to welcome to you today's lecture observing african-american history month. we are pleased to be joined by the illinois state society of washington, d.c., and the college alumni of washington, d.c., in presenting today's lecture. i want to acknowledge and thank rod ross for all of his assistance in planning the event and rod, are you -- there he is. thank you very much, rod. i want to invite everyone to attend our second african-american month lecture on wednesday, february 15th in room 121 of thehe cannon house office building. you can find upcoming events at the back table or online to the society's website at www.uschs.org. later this year, the u.s. c capitol historical society celebrate action its 50th anniversary. we are proud of so surviv

ended lovejoy was acquitted. the most famous underground railroad story associated with owen lovejoy unfolded in the late 1840s. a fugitive slave by the name of john buckner had escaped from missouri and headachen up residents as a farm hand. the farm was close to princeton. the fugitive had decided to stay with someone who would employ him until he could accumulate enough money to make his way to canada. in 1849 buckner was mowing when two men, one of whom was his former owner approached him with guns fold. the slave was marched towards princeton. the slave trackers plan to take him to the river to transport him to st. louis. a friend of lovejoy's saw them on the road. took a short cut to lovejoy's house and told him what was going on. lovejoy immediately tweent the justice of the peace and got a warrant for the slave trackers to be arrested for rioting. when buckner and the two men arrived the sheriff put the two under arrest and a court hearing was hastily called. as the proceeding got underway a group of pro

most part these people were secretive about what they were up to, with some exceptions like owen lovejoy, but the fact of the matter is, there were numerous accounts of fugitive slaves escaping. there were some sections of newspapers had reward posters, advertisement after advertisement, talking about it, but in addition, newspapers were keen on giving accounts of fugitive slaves who were escaping, a court case that was going on, and full blown abolitionists took the opportunity to insert stories in newspapers of the american anti-slavery society had publications that were, of course, designed to speak solely to the subject of anti-slavery issues, and many of the people who wrote stories for these kind of journals were very clear about their commitment and their organization with others. so there were a variety of ways who were living in slave states, most of them of course could not read or write, but some fugitive -- some slaves could read and write, and they would sometimes get a hold of newspapers, even on a plantation, and would become aware of the underground railroad that way. >>