The Founders on Race
While the history of Galesburg and Knox College began in 1837, the history of African Americans in this area did not. The founders and families that moved to the region from New York did nothing to attract African American families to this area. Despite being anti-slavery activists, the founders were not committed to making Galesburg an inter-racial town. The first African American student did not graduate from Knox College until 1870.1 Barnabas Root was the college’s first ‘international’ student, and one of the first Black college graduates in Illinois.
Barnabas Root
A notice announcing that Barnabas Root has graduated from Knox College.
The documents the founders left behind, housed in Special Collections and Archives at Seymour Library on the Knox campus, contain nothing about what the founders thought of African Americans. That also goes for what the founders thought about Native people. While researching the founders, it became clear that even their commitment to the Second Great Awakening did not revolutionize their thinking about Black people: African Americans still need religious uplift to be able to go to heaven. The first mention of African Americans in the Galesburg area was because of the town existing as a stop on the Underground Railroad.2 This is significant because it suggests that the founders had a limited view of racial equality, and did not make Galesburg an inviting place for African Americans to settle.
By Abbey Scholwin
1 Grant Forssberg, “Knox College Timeline - Perspectives on Knox History,” Knox College, 2009, https://www.knox.edu/about-knox/our-history/perspectives-on-knox-history/timeline.
2 “Prominent Figures in Local Anti-Slavery Movement - Underground Railroad Freedom Station,” Knox College, May 25, 2021, https://www.knox.edu/about-knox/our-history/knox-and-galesburg-history/underground-railroad/prominent-figures.
Barnabas Root photo: Forssberg, Grant, “Knox College Timeline - Perspectives on Knox History,” Knox College, 2009, https://www.knox.edu/about-knox/our-history/perspectives-on-knox-history/timeline.
Announcement photo: Republican, Galesburg, “Barnabas Root,” CARLI Digital Collections, 2012, https://collections.carli.illinois.edu/digital/collection/knx_strug/id/231/rec/3.