On this day, February 12, in 1853

Illinois passed a law stating that no black person from another state was allowed to stay in their state for more than ten days. If they were caught, they were to be arrested, and either subject to a $50 fine, or temporarily auctioned into forced labor. These laws, known as “Black Laws” were extremely common in the Southern States, and the state of Illinois had particularly harsh tactics. Although it entered the Union as a free state in 1818, slavery had existed there for almost 100 years and continued to exist for a long time.