Godfrey is a town between Alton and Elsah. It is named after Benjamin Godfrey who dramatically intersected events and people of importance in African American history in Illinois and who, moreover, has overall significance in U.S. history. 

Godfrey was a world traveling businessman who had lost and remade a fortune when he settled in Alton in 1832. It is known that one aspect of his mercantile activity was slave transportation from the east coast to New Orleans between 1819 and 1822. By the time he arrived in Alton and met Elijah Lovejoy he had undergone a dramatic conversion about slavery and allowed Lovejoy to keep his fourth printing press in his warehouse. This is the warehouse that was attacked by the mob that killed Lovejoy on November 7, 1837.

This undated  image, which appears in the Benjamin Godfrey Legacy Trail literature, shows the mob descending on the warehouse where Lovejoy’s doomed fourth printing press was being protected.

Before the Civil War African American slaves fled across the Mississippi River to Illinois, which was a “free” state at that time. Historians think they can document that by 1816 the area called Rocky Fork was one of the first stops for slaves escaping the brutality of Missouri. Rocky Fork is technically in Godfrey but is seamlessly accessed from Alton. 

Rocky Fork became a distinct African American community of escaped slaves for those not moving further. The Rocky Fork area continued to serve as a stop on the UGRR route for decades. Rocky Fork is part of the National Park Service’s National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom group of sites. Notable in the area is the Rocky Fork African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, which was founded in 1863 and is included in the NPS designation. 

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We recommend watching historian Charlotte Johnson explain Rocky Fork in a video embedded in the riverbender.com website (program appears after ad): CLICK HERE 

We also recommend this video about the Rocky Fork Exhibit, sponsored by Lewis and Clark Community College: CLICK HERE