The Jefferson-Lemen Compact

McNaul argues in this address to the Chicago Historical Society that James Lemen, who he describes as a ‘young protégé’ of Thomas Jefferson, was sent by Jefferson in the 1780s to Illinois country to struggle against slavery, which was already well-established in that region before the Ordinance of 1787 prohibited it. Although the evidence for a substantive connection between Jefferson and Lemen doesn’t seem very strong, this is a useful description of the course of the slavery issue in the early years of Illinois.