EDWARDSVILLE - The final program in the 2019 Madison County Historical Society (MCHS) Speaker Series will be held on Sunday, October 13 at 2 p.m. in the fellowship hall of Immanuel United Methodist Church at 800 N. Main Street in Edwardsville, Illinois. Historian J. Eric Robinson who will tell the story of two women, slaves in the state of Missouri, who escaped to freedom in 1853 via the Underground Railroad in northwestern Madison County. The title of the program is “Gertrude Barlabie, Amanda Kitchell and Those Who Helped Them.
Robinson is a graduate of Howard University and the University of Missouri-Columbia and is currently an assistant professor of history at the Saint Louis College of Pharmacy. He is a former president of the Elijah P. Lovejoy Memorial of Alton. Since 1995, his tours of the Underground Railroad in Alton have attracted guests from almost every state and from four continents. The tours have been featured in the New York Times, Business Week, and on the BBC World Service. A noted, and award-winning, essayist as well, Robinson's current project is a book on Gertrude Barlabie’s escape from slavery in St. Louis to freedom in Canada.
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MCHS Speaker programs are held in the fellowship hall of Immanuel United Methodist Church at 800 N. Main Street in Edwardsville, Illinois. Programs are free and open to the public.
Programs in the MCHS Speakers Series are free and open to the public. Regular hours at the Madison County Archival Library are Wed – Fri, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. and Sun, 1 p.m. – 4 p.m. The Madison County Historical Museum is currently closed for renovations. For additional information, call 618-656-1294.
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