Researchers Jon Musgrave,
Ron Nelson and Gary DeNeal explain findings at a Sept. 28 news conference.
Marion Daily Republican photo |
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Reverse U.G.R.R. Crenshaw didn't kidnap in a vacuum. His operations represented just part of a larger kidnapping network that operated throughout the state and country. One historian even claimed that the first Underground Railroad operators in the state copied their operations from the successful house-to-house network used by the kidnappers. For more information check out Black Kidnappings in Southeastern Illinois for more on what others were doing in this region. |
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Underground Railroad In spite of activities by Crenshaw and others, both blacks and whites managed to help slaves escape into freedom here in Southern Illinois. Check out the Underground Railroad page for more information and links. |
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Evidence bolsters case for Old Slave House Group urges Gov. Ryan to support state acquisition of the site IllinoisHistory.com MARION, Ill. (Sept. 28, 1999) — Researchers of the Old Slave House announced today new findings they say dramatically emphasizes the need for state acquisition of the historic site. The three researchers, Ron Nelson, Jon Musgrave and Gary DeNeal, say the discoveries made just last week clinches their previous findings that John Hart Crenshaw, builder of the Old Slave House, profited not only from his salt works, but his major illegal operations involving the kidnapping of free blacks, indentured servants and improperly held slaves, in order to sell them back into slavery. "The findings occurred almost by accident," said Nelson, a long-time historian of southeastern Illinois. "I was in the Illinois State Historical Library wanting copies of some letters we already had transcripts of, when I came across a second letter in the Frank Granger case that nearly blew me away." Crenshaw's kidnapping of Frank Granger, a black man illegally held as a slave in Illinois, took place in about 1827 and represents the earliest identifiable victim the researchers have found. The new letter found a week ago Monday, followed up on the first letter and listed another 15 victims in the same situation as Frank. "That's important because it more than doubles the number of victims we have who are identified by contemporary documents. These aren't statistics, but real people whose plight is being described in letters written on their behalf," explained Jon Musgrave, owner of IllinoisHistory.com. "We have about 30 victims identified by names in these early letters. In addition there are another four who were identified more than a century later as Crenshaw's kidnapped victims. In one letter we even discovered that Crenshaw tried to help a group of slave traders with a lawsuit trying to lay claim to more than 22 freed slaves plus their descendants," Musgrave added. Besides just adding to the quantity of Crenshaw's crimes, the researchers said the newly discovered letter as well documents found last Tuesday and Wednesday in Tennessee, shift the focus to Crenshaw's early involvement in the kidnapping trade. "These two letters date back to the year Crenshaw and his brother bought Hickory Hill, the site of the Old Slave House. We have long said it appeared that Crenshaw purchased the land from his kidnapping operations. The sale of Frank Granger and the others would have likely netted Crenshaw around $5,200, if not more, based on a price of $400 per adult and $200 per child," said Musgrave. "To put this in perspective, the state sold land back then for 50 cents to $2 an acre. A 10-year-old kid was worth $200, which could have been used to buy 400 acres of land." Musgrave added. Even though the recently discovered crimes occurred before Crenshaw built the Old Slave House, the number of victims backs up the claim of the first historian to look at the site's history in the 1930s. That man, John G. Mulcaster, wrote that the house appeared to have been built with the third floor in mind. "Mulcaster's statement means that Crenshaw built the house specifically with the needs of his kidnapping station in mind, as much if not more than the needs of his family for a home," said Musgrave. Crenshaw's newly found activities in the 1820s place him as a major criminal at a time when James Ford, the early river pirate, still controlled the gangs that operated along the Ohio River around Cave-in-Rock and along the Ford's Ferry road which ran next to the Lower Lick saltworks below Hickory Hill. "People have a tendency to think of the outlaws of Cave-in-Rock as simply river pirates who operated out of the cave itself. Outlaws such as Capt. Mason, the Harpes and Duff the counterfeiter operated around the area of the cave and the nearby saltworks after the Revolutionary War up to the turn of the 19th Century. Big Harpe and Duff died 200 years ago in 1799, Little Harpe killed Mason in 1803 and Little Harpe himself was hanged in 1804. Yet their deaths didn't end the violence and outlawry. James Wilson and James Ford (who may have actually been Wilson) took over the activities. Ford not only controlled the Ford's Ferry Gang up until his assassination in 1833, but also operated the saltworks at the Lower Lick below Hickory Hill in the late 1820s. It's interesting that Crenshaw took over those saltworks from Ford." explained Musgrave. Besides the second letter involving the Frank Granger case, researchers Nelson and Musgrave found more evidence of Crenshaw in Tennessee. "Crenshaw took Frank and the others to old Tipton County, Tennessee, which is the first county along the Mississippi River above Memphis. In 1827, probably the year he took Frank, we discovered that Crenshaw and an ex-Gallatin County judge purchased 3,200 acres of land there on either the first or second Chickasaw Bluff along the Mississippi," said Nelson. "Although we don't know the exact location yet, we do know the land contained 2.75 miles of riverfront next to either Fulton, Tennessee, or Randolph, Tennessee. Another document referred to another 800-acre tract of land there." Both towns rivaled Memphis to become the main Mississippi port for Tennessee. Both towns were also just across the river from Marked Tree, Arkansas, the headquarters of another band of river pirates, kidnappers and counterfeiters. "Although historians have long known of a relationship between the Ford's Ferry gang and the Murrell gang of outlaws in Arkansas and Tipton County, Tennessee, this visit by Crenshaw in 1827, is the earliest link we have between the kidnappers of southeastern Illinois and those of the lower Mississippi," said Musgrave. "We knew we would eventually find more links, but to put Crenshaw personally there was a surprise to us. Most of the time it appeared Crenshaw let others do the dirty work, but apparently he was a hands-on outlaw when he got his start." The response to the second Frank Granger letter also emphasizes the need for the preservation of the Old Slave House, according to the researchers. "Henry Eddy wrote that he wouldn't assist in the court case on behalf of the Tennessee victims because the 'decisions were against them' as he noted," said Nelson. "He also said he couldn't take the case because he had just been retained by Crenshaw as his attorney." "Eddy's comments are interesting because he's saying that an Illinois court wouldn't have granted the victims their freedom even though the Illinois Constitution could have easily been interpreted to do so. What makes that ironic, as well as show the hypocrisy of Illinois history, is that the attorney in Tennessee said he could get a local court to do so," said Musgrave. "Because Eddy turned down the request to help, we don't know if a court case was filed in Tennessee, but we do know that two years later a New Orleans court ruled in favor of another kidnapped victim from Gallatin County, Illinois. The irony is that in the 1820s and early 1830s, Illinois blacks had more legal rights in slave state courts than they did in Illinois!" exclaimed Musgrave. The researchers said that the Tennessee case is not the first time they noted Illinois' inconsistencies when it came to slavery in the Land of Lincoln. "Using the Illinois Constitution as their guide, historians have long described Illinois as a free state which had some minor struggles with slavery. Yet if you take an honest and open look at our state's history you'll find that viewpoint wrong. A more honest description is that Illinois started out as a slave state and faced a long struggle that didn't end until after the Civil War to grant civil rights to residents of African descent," said Musgrave. "How does this relate to the Old Slave House? It's a symbol of what was wrong with Illinois before the Civil War. It's a symbol of the contradictions of early Illinois' reality and early Illinois' legend as home to Lincoln. Does this blacken Lincoln's reputation by showing the state as it really existed? No, in fact, it help shows his greatness by showing how far he came from in his fight against racism," said Musgrave. "By covering up Crenshaw's villainy, we also brush over the sometimes heroic struggle of those who fought against him and the racism of his day. Men like Eddy, who normally did help blacks in court; those religiously inclined such as the Quakers, Covenanters, and Emancipation Baptists who started churches throughout the region, and people like John Lockhart who offered up his farm as a reward for the capture and conviction of a group of kidnappers." "Former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley has said race relations is still one of the most important problems facing this country today. Although as a Republican I do not agree with some of his other positions, I do agree with that one. People wonder what the Old Slave House has to do with race relations today, but I've talked with both white and black college students who say the historic site has helped them face racism and to start to understand it in their own lives. "Illinois didn't grant blacks the right to vote until after the Civil War following a statewide convention urging such a move. One of the convention organizers, a black minister from Shawneetown, had once lived next door to Crenshaw a quarter of a century earlier," said Musgrave. "In 1908, the NAACP organized following the deadly Springfield race riots, riots egged on in part by the racist Democratic newspaper in Springfield, the newspaper once owned by Crenshaw's son-in-law." All three researchers encouraged Gov. George Ryan to have the state acquire the site as a state park and preserve it for future generations. "Victor Hugo said it best: 'Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come,'" said DeNeal, publisher of Springhouse Magazine. "Now is the time for Illinois to purchase and to keep open to the public, one, if not the most historic houses in the state. Of course I'm talking about the Old Slave House." |
