Edward Coles

Who was Edward Coles?

Edward Coles was a neighbor and anti-slavery associate of Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe, as well as secretary to James Madison, and the second Governor of Illinois. An anti-slavery advocate throughout his adult life, and who inherited a plantation and slaves, Coles left Virginia for the Illinois Territory in order to set them free. He manumitted his slaves in 1819, and twice led political campaigns that prevented the legitimization of slavery in the new state of Illinois. Coles corresponded with and advised both Thomas Jefferson and James Madison to free their slaves, and in his final years in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania helped shape early historians' views of their republican ideals.