Pin Oak Colony: The Beginnings

R. Eric Robinson, an assistant professor of history at St. Louis College of Pharmacology, has written about the Pin Oak Colony which he believes was a settlement for the former slaves of Gov. Edward Coles. Coles brought his slaves with him from Virginia, but freed them upon reaching the free territory of Illinois. Although Illinois was a free territory, records from 1814 indicate that Madison County was home to at least a dozen slave holders.