New Salem

[Eva Elisabeth]

In 1837, 26 African Americans lived in Springfield, six of whom were slaves.

What about New Salem? I once read Lincoln first met William de Fleurville in New Salem, but did the latter actually live there? Did any other black people/slaves live in New Salem?

[Gene C]

I don't recall reading of any in New Salem, but I believe there were some free blacks in the area, closer than Springfield (22 miles). Maybe Joe Di Cola will chime in.
No recollection of William De Fleurville living in New Salem.

[RJNorton]

Assuming this story is true de Fleurville never actually lived in New Salem. He spent just one night there cutting hair.

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FLORVILLE, WILLIAM, was born about 1806, at Cape Haytien (Haiti, West Indies). When the revolution commenced, in 1821 and 22, his god-mother took him to Baltimore, Md., and kept him in St. Mary's Convent until her death, when he was bound by the orphan's court to learn the trade of a barber. He then went to New Orleans, thence to St. Louis, and with others from St. Louis, on a hunting excursion, up the Mississippi, Illinois and Sangamon rivers, to New Salem, then in Sangamon county, arriving in the fall of 1831. It was late in the evening, and as he approached the village he fell in with a tall man, wearing a red flannel shirt and carrying an axe on his shoulder, just returning from his day's labor in the woods. They fell into an easy conversation and walked to a little grocery store together. The tall man was Abraham Lincoln, who soon learned that the stranger was a barber, nearly out of money and aiming to reach Springfield. That was enough to enlist the good will of Mr. Lincoln, who took him to his boarding house, told the people his business and situation. That opened the way for an evening's work among the boarders, and the next morning he started on his way rejoicing, and reached Springfield the second day."

https://archive.org/details/historyofearlyse00powe

[Eva Elisabeth]

Thanks, Roger! His advertisement was funny, and quite creative. Sure he would rap his poems nowadays.

[Angela]

Eva, I could not find any numbers either. I was quite surprised that not even in "The Fiery Trial", which lists meticulously the number of slaves and free black people in most of the places Lincoln lived, a count for New Salem could be found.
In "Abraham Lincoln Traveled This Way" there is the number of "two dozen families" mentioned; "largely hard-shell Babtists from Kentucky".

[Eva Elisabeth]

(09-11-2014 12:02 PM)Angela Wrote:  In "Abraham Lincoln Traveled This Way" there is the number of "two dozen families" mentioned; "largely hard-shell Babtists from Kentucky".

Many thanks, Angela - but that is strange, two dozen black families in New Salem? That's 24 families, and I read the highest population New Salem had was 25 families.

[Angela]

(09-11-2014 06:33 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  

(09-11-2014 12:02 PM)Angela Wrote:  In "Abraham Lincoln Traveled This Way" there is the number of "two dozen families" mentioned; "largely hard-shell Babtists from Kentucky".

Many thanks, Angela - but that is strange, two dozen black families in New Salem? That's 24 families, and I read the highest population New Salem had was 25 families.

No - that was the number altogether given for New Salem.

[Gene C]

According to "Living in the Shadow of Greatness" by Raymond Montgomery, about New Salem, Petersburg and the surrounding area;
"Black families began to settle in the Petersburg as early as 1870. This small group of less than half a dozen took pride in their families, their homes, their work and the community The fact that they resided in a small town is in itself a phenomenon for unfortunately most small towns in Central Illinois before and following the Civil War did not welcome them."

[tblunk]

(09-09-2014 06:35 PM)Gene C Wrote:  I don't recall reading of any in New Salem, but I believe there were some free blacks in the area, closer than Springfield (22 miles). Maybe Joe Di Cola will chime in.
No recollection of William De Fleurville living in New Salem.

The 1840 Census lists 10 free blacks in Menard County. As far as I can tell.