Songs of the IL Freedom Road in Freeport

Songs of the Illinois Freedom Road is the powerful new musical performance featuring the songs, stories, and struggles of the Illinois Underground Railroad.

The show features rare first-person accounts of freedom seekers who passed through Illinois. Highlighted stories include John and Mary Little, who traveled on foot 140 miles to Chicago, and George Burroughs, a black Canadian who worked on the Illinois Central Railroad where he helped smuggle escapees to freedom.

Vallillo extensively researched the subject using primary source documents such as the 1857 Slave Narratives of Canada and the WPA Slave Narratives as well as the most recent scholarship on the subject. Vallillo combines these powerful stories with eleven historic songs that were sung by the enslaved to inspire and share knowledge among themselves.

Presenter Bio: Chris Vallillo is a singer/songwriter and roots musician who makes the people and places of “unmetropolitan” America come to life in song. He weaves original, contemporary, and traditional songs and narratives into a compelling and entertaining portraits of history. Having spent the last 30 years in the rural Midwest, he has a natural affinity for American roots music.