that article was very interesting. I forget that Illinois was once a part of French Louisiana before it was American. So their was still slavery occuring in Illinois right up to the Civil War... I also noticed something else about William Carter in later census's in Macon County. He is consistently listed as being a mulatto and lists his birthplace as being Illinois along with his mother..but he lists his father's birthplace as Tennessee. Now in the 1860 census of Illinois, there was a 31 year free mulatto laborer with the birthplace of Tennessee by the name of Robert Carter. He could be a candidate for a potential father for William Carter. It appears that Richard Pryor's ancestors migrated into the state as free blacks..More research would have to be done in order to confirm some of this info though. I saw his genealogy on a pro genealogy site and the info peaked my curiosity.

Rodney