Darrel Dexter talking about slavery in Southern Illinois
The October membership meeting for the Williamson County Historical Society was held on October 27th, 2019 at their museum and genealogy library at 105 S. Van Buren Street in Marion. Past, ongoing and upcoming projects were discussed including military marker installations, historical county markers, and the transcription of local funeral home records. President, Sam Lattuca, reported that renovation of the cell block in the museum was near completion and only lacked restoration of informational displays to be completed.
Recent accessions to the museum accumulated in the past three months were talked about including donations that have been made by the McKinney family over five generations.
The guest speaker was Darrel Dexter, Union County history teacher, genealogist and author of 28 books including his latest, “Bondage in Egypt.” Dexter spoke to the society about slavery in Southern Illinois from the time of French settlement through to the formation of Illinois as a state and how loopholes in the law were used to enslave peoples under the guise of “voluntary” indenture.
The election of 2020 board members was held and officers for next year will be Sam Lattuca, President; Andrew McRoy, 1st Vice President; Gloria Spinks, 2nd Vice President; Mike Spinks, Treasurer; Ursula Richey, Secretary and Helen Lind, Director till 2022. Two other board members, George Mavigliano and Robert Jackson serve as directors but their rotating terms were not up this year.