[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Page Header” _builder_version=”4.16″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Exhibit Title” _builder_version=”4.17.6″ _dynamic_attributes=”content” _module_preset=”default” border_width_bottom=”1px” border_color_bottom=”#E09900″ global_module=”6078″ global_colors_info=”{}”]@ET-DC@eyJkeW5hbWljIjp0cnVlLCJjb250ZW50Ijoic2l0ZV90aXRsZSIsInNldHRpbmdzIjp7ImJlZm9yZSI6IjxoMj4iLCJhZnRlciI6IjwvaDI+In19@[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Section Title” module_id=”section-title” module_class=”page-header” _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_margin=”||5px” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Page Title” module_id=”page-title” module_class=”page-header” _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_margin=”0px||” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”3_5,2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/oldsite.coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2021\/10\/CCP_001-PriscillaBaltimore-1858.png” title_text=”CCP_001-PriscillaBaltimore-1858″ show_in_lightbox=”on” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”13px” text_line_height=”1.3em” header_font_size=”13px” custom_margin=”-11px|||||” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n
Priscilla Baltimore [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n \u2014 Rev. T. W. Henderson, “‘Mother’ Baltimore’s Burial,”\u00a0St. Louis Globe-Democrat<\/em>, Dec. 4, 1882.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”3_5,2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Priscilla Baltimore purchased her own freedom and then labored tirelessly for the freedom of others. She was born around 1801 in Bourbon, Kentucky. Her mother was an enslaved woman and her father a white enslaver. As Rev. T. W. Henderson recounted at her funeral in 1882, Baltimore was first sold at the age of eight, then sold a second time, and finally sold to a Methodist missionary who brought her to the St. Louis area. There, Baltimore converted to Methodism and began preaching to enslaved women and men.<\/span>[1<\/span>]<\/span><\/p>\n After about seven years of laboring in St. Louis, Baltimore had saved enough money to purchase her own freedom from the Methodist preacher. Oral histories tell us that to purchase her mother\u2019s freedom, she bought and mortgaged property in St. Louis. While there, she also married Louis Coontz, who died of cholera just three weeks after they wed. She then married John Baltimore, an enslaved man, who went on to help her found the town of Brooklyn, Illinois, after she purchased his freedom as well. In addition to paying for her freedom, Baltimore was required to post a bond of $500 for a \u201clicense to reside in the State of Missouri.\u201d[2]<\/span><\/p>\n In the late 1820s, accompanied by Baltimore, eleven Black families crossed the Mississippi River. Some were enslaved and some were free, but all sought new opportunities in the nominally free state of Illinois. This group of Black migrants started the town of Brooklyn, Illinois, in 1829. Priscilla and John\u2019s home became their place of worship. William Paul Quinn, a traveling A.M.E. minister, visited the town in the 1830s and helped establish what would become known as the Brooklyn A.M.E. Church, the \u201cfirst African Methodist Church in the West.\u201d In the early 1840s, John and Priscilla bought several pieces of land in town, one of which became the site of the church.[3]<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”3_5,2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/oldsite.coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2021\/10\/CCP_040_BaltimoreBond-1861.jpg” title_text=”CCP_040_BaltimoreBond-1861″ show_in_lightbox=”on” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”13px” text_line_height=”1.3em” header_font_size=”13px” min_height=”51.7px” custom_margin=”-8px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Priscilla Baltimore’s Free Bond, 1861 [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”3_5,2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”|auto||auto|false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Priscilla Baltimore helped make the town of Brooklyn a refuge from enslavement. Though her home \u201cwould have been a very small house,\u201d without any sort of plumbing and a cistern for rainwater, wrote archeologist Joe Galloy, it was a major site of resistance to slavery. \u201cShe understood from firsthand experience,\u201d wrote historian Cheryl LaRoche, \u201cthe costs of both slavery and freedom.\u201d Her abolitionism earned her the sobriquet the Moses of the West.[4]<\/span> One story particularly exemplifies the dangers residents faced as they stood up to the institution of slavery. \u00a0A fugitive was sheltering with a Black Brooklynite named William Carper when slavecatchers rode into town. Determined to recapture the runaway, they murdered Carper. Priscilla Baltimore\u2019s adopted son, Milton Carper, may have been the child of this martyr to the cause of freedom.[5]<\/span><\/p>\n The town of Brooklyn was incorporated in 1873, officially becoming the first \u201cBlack town\u201d in America.[6]<\/span> Meanwhile, Baltimore moved back to St. Louis by the 1870s, pursuing lawsuits to recover real estate she had lost in Brooklyn, working as a domestic, and becoming involved with civic life in the city. After her husband passed away, she lived with her adopted son, Milton, who worked as a laborer.[7]<\/span><\/p>\n Baltimore died in 1882, leaving $2,000 to the A.M.E. Church of St. Louis.[8<\/span>]<\/span> Her funeral filled the large St. Paul\u2019s A.M.E. Chapel, another congregation Baltimore had helped organize.[9<\/span>]<\/span> Even the \u201cstairways were filled with a mass of spectators,\u201d reported the <\/span>St. Louis Globe Democrat<\/span><\/i>. \u201cThe outpouring was the largest of its kind ever seen in this vicinity,\u201d continued the article, \u201cand was a manifestation of respect to the memory of Mother Baltimore\u2026 whose life was replete with well-doing and adventure.\u201d[10]<\/span> She rests in the now free soil of Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”3_5,2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”|auto||auto|false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” admin_label=”Sources” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n 1. Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua, America\u2019s First Black Town: Brooklyn, Illinois, 1830-1915 <\/i>(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000), 37-38; \u201c\u2018Mother\u2019 Baltimore\u2019s Burial,\u201d St. Louis Globe-Democrat<\/i>, Dec. 4, 1882; Shakia Gullette, \u201c\u2018Mother\u2019 Priscilla Baltimore\u2019s Freedom Village,\u201d Missouri Historical Society Blog, accessed Aug. 31, 2021, https:\/\/mohistory.org\/blog\/priscilla-baltimore<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2. Gullette, \u201cPriscilla Baltimore\u2019s Freedom Village\u201d; \u201c\u2018Mother\u2019 Baltimore\u2019s Burial\u201d; Priscilla Baltimore\u2019s Free Negro Bond, 1861, Dexter P. Tiffany Collection, D07672, Missouri Historical Society Collections.<\/p>\n 3. Cha-Jua, America\u2019s First Black Town<\/i>, 32; Gullette, \u201cPriscilla Baltimore\u2019s Freedom Village\u201d; \u201c\u2018Mother\u2019 Baltimore\u2019s Burial.\u201d<\/p>\n 4. Danny Wicentowski, \u201cArcheologists Dig in Brooklyn, IL for Signs of Slave-Freeing Founder Priscilla Baltimore,\u201d River Front Times, <\/i>Sep. 5, 2014. https:\/\/www.riverfronttimes.com\/newsblog\/2014\/09\/05\/archaeologists-dig-in-brooklyn-il-for-signs-of-slave-freeing-founder-priscilla-baltimore<\/a>;\u00a0 Cheryl Janifer LaRoche, Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad: the Geography of Resistance <\/i>(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2014), 30-31.<\/p>\n 5. LaRoche, Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad<\/i>, 36.<\/p>\n 6. Gullette, \u201c\u2018Mother\u2019 Priscilla Baltimore\u2019s Freedom Village.\u201d<\/p>\n 7. Ancestry.com, Missouri, Wills and Probate Records, 1766-1988<\/i>, Priscilla Baltimore; 1880 US Census: Priscilla Baltimore, Ancestry.com; \u201c\u2018Mother\u2019 Baltimore\u2019s Burial.\u201d<\/p>\n 8. Ancestry.com, Missouri, Wills and Probate Records, 1766-1988<\/i>, Priscilla Baltimore.[\/note] Her funeral filled the large St. Paul\u2019s A.M.E. Chapel, another congregation Baltimore had helped organize.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>(Source: Sarah J. W. Early, Life and Labors of Rev. Jordan W. Early, one of the pioneers of African Methodism in the West and South <\/i>[Philadelphia: G.A. Singleton, 1958]. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons<\/a>.)<\/p>\n“In Priscilla Baltimore’s bed-room that night was organized the first African Methodist Church in the West.”<\/h2>\n
<\/strong>Priscilla Baltimore obtained a license to live in St. Louis County, Missouri, in 1861. This document shows that a man named John Riggin posted a bond of $500 so she could receive the license. Baltimore signed the agreement with an \u201cX\u201d as \u201cher mark.\u201d (Source: Courtesy of Missouri Historical Society Collections<\/a>)<\/p>\nSources<\/h4>\n