Thank you for posting the link to a story on Edward Coles.

Many slaveholders brought their slaves to Illinois and freed them. Sadly, some of the former slaves, along with free blacks, were kidnapped by slavetraders, taken south, and sold.

Ralph Crawford was the slave that Edward Coles put in charge of the group for the trip from the Virginia plantation to Edwardsville, Illinois. Ralph Crawford's name is the seventh on the list under Coles' name on the database Illinois Servitude and Emancipation Records. Click on the link. Scroll down the page and in the box for "Name of Other Party" type in Coles. Then click on "Submit"

Ed Adams