Slavery

Forgotten no more: First slave freed by Abraham Lincoln in Illinois now being honored

Journal Star

Tazewell County Clerk John Ackerman kneels next to a new monument honoring Nance Legins-Costley and her son William Henry Costley in a small park between businesses in downtown Pekin. The Pekin residents were the first slaves emancipated by Abraham Lincoln. The monument will be officially unveiled Saturday, June 17, 2023, in a public ceremony featuring Illinois Supreme Court Justice Lisa Holder White.

PEKIN, Illinois — A Black woman who was born a slave, Nance Legins-Costley and her extraordinary story didn’t make it into the history books.

The longtime Pekin resident’s freedom was the subject of a pivotal court case that resulted in the abolition of indentured servitude — another name for slavery — in Illinois in 1841. Nance Legins-Costley and her three oldest children were freed, along with all other indentured servants in Illinois, as a result of Bailey v. Cromwell, a case brought before the Illinois Supreme Court.