Kaitlin Benson is a graduate student at Western Illinois University. She is pursuing her Master’s Degree in History and expects to graduate in May 2012. Kaitlin specializes in early nineteenth-century American history and is currently writing her Master’s thesis, Before the Compromise: Slave Labor in Territorial Missouri, 1804-1821.
Kaitlin hails from Rockford, Illinois. The daughter of Keith and Lori Benson, she was encouraged by them to advance her interest in family and local history. Inspired to pursue history, she received a bachelor’s degree in history at Northern Illinois University in 2010. In addition to her academic work in the History Department, Kaitlin serves as the editor of the Western Illinois Historical Review, participates in Western Against Slavery, and works as the Fall 2011 Western Illinois Museum Intern. Kaitlin is 23 and lives in Macomb.