Thursday, July 31, 2003
Status Report
Regrettably, not much progress in terms of the Old Slave House. We're still waiting for the governor's office to respond. Last year it took the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency six months to respond to a similar proposal that they had actually requested. We're hoping that it won't take the new administration that long.
Research Update — Murder of Benjamin Hardin
While we've been waiting on the governor, there have been some new findings in the research regarding the Old Slave House and its times. In a bit of good news for Crenshaw's defenders, some new evidence mostly clears him in the murder of Benjamin Hardin in 1836.
The story of Hardin's murder had a tendency to pop up in writings about Crenshaw leading to speculation that he was the "prominent white businessman" responsible for Hardin's death. It now appears more likely that Michael Jones was the man responsible for hiring Peter Hardin who hired John Caldwell to kill Benjamin. Both Peter and Caldwell were black. A mob broke Caldwell out of the county jail in Equality and lynched him. Peter survived for a trial the following year only to be convicted of murder and sentenced to death.
The big fight turned out to be how to prosecute the white man responsible. Jones and the victim were known antagonists and Jones immediately became a suspect. Interestingly the circuit judge at the time, Jephtha Hardin, was Jones' brother-in-law. He appointed Gallatin County's leading lawyer, Henry Eddy, to help the state's attorney investigate the case. The grand jury indicted Jones for the murder and Judge Hardin took the unusual step of resigning from the bench in order to prosecute Jones, so personal the fight had become. Jones got off, not suprisingly since the only witness that could connect him to Caldwell was Peter Hardin. Under the racist laws at the time, blacks couldn't testify against whites (hence the reason they were often employed to do such dirty deeds). Not only did the trial jury acquit Jones, he turned around and sued Hardin and two others for slander.
There's more to the case, but that's the gist of it. Crenshaw isn't off the hook completely because if Jones wasn't the man responsible, then someone else has to be the suspect. Also, Jones was a partner of Crenshaw's in at least two business ventures (of course Jephtha Hardin was also a partner in a third venture). While there are a number of interesting aspects of the murder and the subsequent trials, the thing that stands out is Hardin's description of Jones as a "horse-thief". If true, that puts Jones in league with some of less savory characters in the region and provides another link between Crenshaw and that "ancient colony of horse-thieves, counterfeiters and robbers."
I'll have more on this story in the chapter entitled "Dues, Feuds and Slander Suits" in the upcoming new Egyptian Tales of Southern Illinois, which I hope to have out by the end of September.
Research Update II — Going Gang
Another focus of my research lately has been on the Going Gang of the Walnut Hill area straddling the Marion-Jefferson county line. This gang was best known for its counterfeiting during the late territorial and early statehood period. They were contemporaries with the Sturdivant Gang based at what's now Rosiclare. What's interesting to the Old Slave House research is that the early references to them also mentioned they were involved in "negro stealing" or what we would call kidnapping. Also interesting is that although the census records list them as white, they are believed to be a part of the same Goings in Logan County, Kentucky, who were remembered to be "Egyptians" or sometype of mixed-race, but not necessarily African, heritage. Their ancestors, according to the Logan County histories, were slavers shipwrecked off the Carolina coast. Others from that Logan County bunch wound up in Gallatin County and are linked both to Crenshaw as well as other kidnappings.
Again, I think I'm going to wrap up what I have on the gang and make it a chapter in the new Egyptian Tales. The additional linkages with Crenshaw will probably have to wait until I publish Slaves, Salt, Sex & Mr. Crenshaw, my book on the Old Slave House. I've not set a publication date for that one, but it will likely be out sometime in 2004.
Regrettably, not much progress in terms of the Old Slave House. We're still waiting for the governor's office to respond. Last year it took the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency six months to respond to a similar proposal that they had actually requested. We're hoping that it won't take the new administration that long.
Research Update — Murder of Benjamin Hardin
While we've been waiting on the governor, there have been some new findings in the research regarding the Old Slave House and its times. In a bit of good news for Crenshaw's defenders, some new evidence mostly clears him in the murder of Benjamin Hardin in 1836.
The story of Hardin's murder had a tendency to pop up in writings about Crenshaw leading to speculation that he was the "prominent white businessman" responsible for Hardin's death. It now appears more likely that Michael Jones was the man responsible for hiring Peter Hardin who hired John Caldwell to kill Benjamin. Both Peter and Caldwell were black. A mob broke Caldwell out of the county jail in Equality and lynched him. Peter survived for a trial the following year only to be convicted of murder and sentenced to death.
The big fight turned out to be how to prosecute the white man responsible. Jones and the victim were known antagonists and Jones immediately became a suspect. Interestingly the circuit judge at the time, Jephtha Hardin, was Jones' brother-in-law. He appointed Gallatin County's leading lawyer, Henry Eddy, to help the state's attorney investigate the case. The grand jury indicted Jones for the murder and Judge Hardin took the unusual step of resigning from the bench in order to prosecute Jones, so personal the fight had become. Jones got off, not suprisingly since the only witness that could connect him to Caldwell was Peter Hardin. Under the racist laws at the time, blacks couldn't testify against whites (hence the reason they were often employed to do such dirty deeds). Not only did the trial jury acquit Jones, he turned around and sued Hardin and two others for slander.
There's more to the case, but that's the gist of it. Crenshaw isn't off the hook completely because if Jones wasn't the man responsible, then someone else has to be the suspect. Also, Jones was a partner of Crenshaw's in at least two business ventures (of course Jephtha Hardin was also a partner in a third venture). While there are a number of interesting aspects of the murder and the subsequent trials, the thing that stands out is Hardin's description of Jones as a "horse-thief". If true, that puts Jones in league with some of less savory characters in the region and provides another link between Crenshaw and that "ancient colony of horse-thieves, counterfeiters and robbers."
I'll have more on this story in the chapter entitled "Dues, Feuds and Slander Suits" in the upcoming new Egyptian Tales of Southern Illinois, which I hope to have out by the end of September.
Research Update II — Going Gang
Another focus of my research lately has been on the Going Gang of the Walnut Hill area straddling the Marion-Jefferson county line. This gang was best known for its counterfeiting during the late territorial and early statehood period. They were contemporaries with the Sturdivant Gang based at what's now Rosiclare. What's interesting to the Old Slave House research is that the early references to them also mentioned they were involved in "negro stealing" or what we would call kidnapping. Also interesting is that although the census records list them as white, they are believed to be a part of the same Goings in Logan County, Kentucky, who were remembered to be "Egyptians" or sometype of mixed-race, but not necessarily African, heritage. Their ancestors, according to the Logan County histories, were slavers shipwrecked off the Carolina coast. Others from that Logan County bunch wound up in Gallatin County and are linked both to Crenshaw as well as other kidnappings.
Again, I think I'm going to wrap up what I have on the gang and make it a chapter in the new Egyptian Tales. The additional linkages with Crenshaw will probably have to wait until I publish Slaves, Salt, Sex & Mr. Crenshaw, my book on the Old Slave House. I've not set a publication date for that one, but it will likely be out sometime in 2004.