Freeport, city, seat of Stephenson County, northern Illinois, on the Pecatonica River; incorporated 1855. It is an agricultural and manufacturing center, producing foodstuffs, electrical equipment, rubber goods, and toiletries. A community college and an art museum and cultural center are here. The community was settled in the 1830s; its name may reflect the generosity of a local trader who, according to his wife, ran a “free port” for travelers. The second Lincoln-Douglas debate, in which Senator Stephen A. Douglas advanced the “Freeport doctrine” that a locality in a U.S. territory could prohibit slavery despite the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the Dred Scott case, was held here on August 27, 1858. Population 26,266 (1980); 25,840 (1990); 26,443 (2000).
