The Ottawa Historic Preservation Commission and the LaSalle County Board Property Committee have an agreement on honoring a fleeing slave. A plaque telling Jim Gray’s story will be placed on the grounds of the downtown Ottawa LaSalle County courthouse.
Gray escaped from a slave owner in Missouri in 1859. He was caught in Illinois, no longer a slave state but one that returned fleeing slaves to the places they fled from. Chuck Stanley on the Historic Preservation Commission says an Illinois Supreme Court judge in Ottawa ruled that Gray had to be turned over to federal authorities. Abolitionists had prepared to defy such an order. They got in the marshals’ way, took Gray out of the courthouse and into a waiting carriage, and drove him northward out of the city.
No one knows what happened to Gray after that. He may have changed his name. It’s believed he made it to Canada.
The judge who handled the case vowed never to bring up another slavery case in Ottawa because it would surely lead to more defiance of the court. A lawyer accused of aiding the abolitionists was convicted and sentenced to ten days in jail. According to the stories, he was treated like a celebrity while in the custody of high profile people from elsewhere in northern Illinois.
The commission is getting a grant for the plaque.