04/12/2026
Sugar Grove Historical Society Presents
Almost a Slave State
Part III
In April of 1818, President James Monroe (1817 to 1825) signed into law the Illinois Enabling Act, outlining three requirements for the Territory of Illinois to become a state: Establish a population of 40,000 inhabitants, the creation of a state constitution, and establishing defined state boundaries, which included moving the northern border further north to secure Lake Michigan access for commerce.
There was a great dispute over the requirement of 40,000 inhabitants, which Congress considered inflated. With a retake of the census, Illinois showed 40,258 inhabitants, but that number was still considered bogus, and the Illinois Territory, at the time, nearly failed to become a state, though admission ultimately proceeded.
The Illinois Constitution had requirements to meet: establishing a legal framework, government structure, and citizens’ rights. Creating a system for state governance and affirming that the legislature could pass laws not prohibited by the U.S. Constitution or the state constitution.
Thirty-three delegates met in Kaskaskia (the territorial capital from 1809-1818), led by attorney Elias Kent Kane (for whom Kane County was later named), and they drafted the Illinois constitution based on those of New York, Ohio, and Kentucky. The Constitution was ratified on August 26, 1818.
To Congress (in 1818, there were 42 Senators and 185 Representatives), the Illinois Constitution was considered too liberal, as it granted voting rights to all white males who had lived in the state for just six months, regardless of property ownership, and without requiring them to be U.S. citizens. It also limited the governor's powers and set aside land in every future township for schools.
In Congress, 34 members voted against admitting Illinois to the Union because they believed the Constitution, as it was written, did not go far enough to address or prohibit slavery.
This was not surprising, as Elias Kane and half of the delegates were slave holders in the Illinois Territory. This led to a set of concessions embedded in the constitution. Rather than a formal compromise, the Illinois Constitution included provisions that allowed forms of slavery to persist while Illinois was considered a Free State; the term Free State satisfied Northern anti-slavery and abolition interests. But it allowed existing slaves to remain in servitude. Allowed indentured servitude (a Loophole for slavery), where enslaved people signed labor contracts, allowing slavery to continue only under different legal terms. And the Salt Works Exception: allowing slaves to be brought into Gallatin County from other locations to work the salt mines near Shawneetown. Also, Hereditary Servitude was upheld, forcing children of slaves to serve their mother’s owner until their adulthood.
The Constitution was not submitted to popular vote, as the convention had the authority to ratify it directly. Illinois was admitted to the Union as the 21st state on December 3, 1818. Illinois, as a slave state, was still considered possible.
Further Reading
Creating the Land of Lincoln: The History and Constitution of Illinois, 1778-1870 by Frank Cicero Jr.
The Alchemy of Slavery: Human Bo***ge and Emancipation in the Illinois Country, 1730-1865 by M. Scott Heerman
History of Negro Slavery in Illinois and the Slavery Agitation by N. Dwight Harris
The Illinois Constitution, 1818
