da of James Lemen and his circle constituted a
determining factor in the history of the first generation of Illinois
Baptists. To what extent Lemen co-operated with Jefferson in his
movements will appear as we proceed with the story of his efforts to
make Illinois a free State.

The "Old Dominion" ceded her "county of Illinois" to the National
domain in 1784. Jefferson's effort to provide for the exclusion of
slavery from the new Territory at that date proved abortive.
Consequently, when James Lemen arrived at the old French village of
Kaskaskia in July, 1786, he found slavery legally entrenched in all
the former French possessions in the "Illinois country." It had been
introduced by Renault, in 1719, who brought 500 negroes from Santo
Domingo (then a French possession) to work the mines which he expected
to develop in this section of the French Colonial Empire.[8] It is a
noteworthy fact that slavery was established on the soil of Illinois
just a century after its introduction on the shores of Virginia. When
the French possessions were taken over by Great Britain at the close
of the colonial struggle in 1763, that country guaranteed the French
inhabitants the possession of all their property, including slaves.
When Col. Clark, of Virginia, took possession of this region in 1778,
the State likewise guaranteed the inhabitants the full enjoyment of
all their property rights. By the terms of the Virginia cession of
1784 to the National Government, all the rights and privileges of the
former citizens of Virginia were assured to them in the ceded
district. Thus, at the time of Lemen's arrival, slavery had been
sanctioned on the Illinois prairies for sixty-seven years. One year
from the date of his arrival, however, the Territorial Ordinance of
1787 was passed, with the prohibition of slavery, as originally
proposed by Jefferson in 1784.[9] Thus it would seem that the desired
object had already been attained. By the terms of the famous "Sixth
Article of Compact," contained in that Ordinance, it was declared that
"there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said
Territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the
accused shall have been duly convicted." This looks like a sweeping
and final disposition of {p.12} the matter, but it was not accepted
as such until the lapse of another fifty-seven years. But neither
Jefferson nor his agents on the ground had anticipated so easy a
victory. Indeed,