John Crenshaw facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
John Crenshaw
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John Hart Crenshaw
November 19, 1797 North Carolina
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| Died | December 4, 1871 (aged 74) |
| Resting place | Hickory Hill Cemetery, Equality, Illinois |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | salt maker |
| Known for | Illegal slave trader |
| Spouse(s) | Francine "Sina" Taylor |
| Children | 6 |
John Hart Crenshaw (November 19, 1797 – December 4, 1871) was an American landowner, salt maker, and slave trader, based out of Gallatin County, Illinois.
Although Illinois was a free state, Crenshaw leased the salt works in nearby Equality, Illinois from the government, which permitted the use of slaves for the arduous labor of hauling and boiling brackish water to produce salt. Crenshaw was widely believed to be involved in the kidnapping and sale of free black citizens in free states as slaves in the south, an enormously profitable trade later known as the Reverse Underground Railroad. Crenshaw was twice prosecuted for kidnapping, but never convicted.
Due to Crenshaw's keeping slaves and kidnapping free blacks, who were then pressed into slavery, his house became popularly known as The Old Slave House and is alleged to be haunted.
Underground Railroad National Network to Freedom
In 2004, the National Park Service named the Crenshaw Mansion, referred to as "The Old Slave House", as part of the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program to acknowledge its importance in the "reverse underground railroad" and the role John Crenshaw played in condemning free blacks to slavery for profit.
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1970s photograph of the "Old Slave House" built by John Hart Crenshaw.
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The Saline River of southeastern Illinois where John Crenshaw at the Illinois Salines, in Equality, Illinois, leased out Kentucky slaves from their owners who boiled down salt brine water from wells and the river into usable salt for sale.
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Kidnapping a free black in a non-slave state to be sold into American slavery, 1834 in which Crenshaw was an active participant.
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James Ford, the ferry operator and outlaw across the Ohio River in western Kentucky knew John Hart Crenshaw and probably used his criminal gang to illegally transport kidnapped free blacks from Illinois to The South to be sold into slavery.
See also
In Spanish: John Crenshaw para niños
