Old Slave House dig continues, hog butchery evidence unearthed
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Archeologists have found evidence of something odd at the Crenshaw House -- or Old Slave House -- near Equality.
The Southern Illinois University Center for Archeological Research surveyed the yard of the house last fall with remote sensing and have worked off and on through the winter as the weather conditions permitted.
The state hired the research crew to find out what might be buried in the ground around the house as the state prepares to restore the property and reopen it. The state bought the home in 2000 from George Sisk whose family operated it as an educational and tourist attraction through much of the 20th century.
The Crenshaw House is the home of John Hart Crenshaw, who for several years in the 19th century produced salt on nearby saline lands leased from the federal government. Labor at the salt works was provided by legally enslaved African Americans. Crenshaw had a local reputation of being involved in the kidnapping of free African Americans and selling them into slavery.
The archeologists expected to locate foundations of outbuildings, a privy and a well and they have located those structures. What they did not expect was evidence hogs may have been slaughtered in the front yard.
"It's producing a lot of rock, window glass and animal bones. We are surprised to find these in the front yard. These are things you find in the back yard," the Center's Staff Archeologist Mark Wagner said.
However, the depth of the deposits in the front yard date to the 1860s to 1880s, many years after the Crenshaw's lived at the house. And, besides, the Crenshaws -- unscrupulous as they may have been -- kept a fine property for entertaining guests. They may have kept slaves hidden in the house's infamous third floor, but would never have been so uncivilized as to allow hogs to be butchered on the front lawn.
The researchers have located what they are confident is a buried privy in the side yard that appears to have had stone walls that were pushed into it upon its burial. An auger would dig only about 2 feet before it hit a stone layer. There also appears to be a buried stone path leading from the rear of the house to the privy.
There is evidence of a large building in the east yard near the privy and well that has not yet been investigated.
The team also found a foundation pier in the back yard they believe could have been a summer kitchen.
As Wagner, Doug Kosik and Dani Frank were sifting through buckets of dirt in the front yard, Charles Swedlund was examining and recording names from walls of the third floor.
For decades -- at least from 1920, even before the house was open to visitors for an admission price -- people have gone to the third floor. That was where the kidnapped free blacks were supposed to have been kept as prisoners before their sale into slavery in the south.
The third floor is a hall flanked by a series of tiny rooms with some that contain what appear to be cramped bunks. At one time the walls were covered with plaster which has crumbled in many places. On the plaster, the door frames and about every other available surface people have recorded their names, dates of visits, artwork, poetry and other markings.
Swedlund has been recording and photographing names and prehistoric images left in Mammoth Cave in Kentucky for over 25 years. He was a photography instructor for Southern Illinois University, has written photography textbooks and when he heard there was a room of old names written in the Old Slave House he volunteered his time to document them.
What some call graffiti, vandalism, anarchy or just plain meanness, Swedlund calls history.
Swedlund believes the recording of a name fills a human desire to be remembered during a time of exploration and the intent is rarely to deface property.
"I have not seen anything in here that has been an 'ism' or sexually offensive. It's just people having a wonderful adventure. This was a place to leave a name, a drawing, a poem. It's human expression," Swedlund said.
Swedlund stressed he does not agree that anyone should take a pen or knife and feel free to write or etch their names on public or private property, but as for the Old Slave House he believes since the names are already on the walls and do serve as a record book of visitors they should be allowed to remain as history.
Swedlund is making a mosaic of the third floor in photographs as he has done in Mammoth Cave. He will piece the photographs together and record the names and entries into a database.
Documentary filmmaker Rich Kuenneke of Oak View Road Media in Carbondale is recording the SIU archeological research as a three-year project.
"I'm focusing on Mark's dig and providing a historical context of the property, its history and its place in Southern Illinois legend and lore," Kuenneke said.
"The focus is Mark's work as he attempts to recreate the 19th century here. And it's a great opportunity to tell about industry in Illinois, the salt industry."
Wagner said part of the decision to commission Kuenneke had to do with Wagner's desire to share findings with the public that is funding the work.
The house must remain closed to the public until the state's restoration is ready. The driveway to the house is eroded, there are no bathrooms available and the site is not set up to permit visitors. There are caretakers living at the house to protect it and call the Gallatin County Sheriff's Office in the case of trespassers.
Wagner knows the public is interested in the history and hopes to answer questions about the work through Kuenneke's documentary.
The investigation is contracted to last three years and is funded by $400,000 of federal money and $100,000 in state money.
<ul>
<li>
DeNeal receives e-mail at mailto:bdeneal@yourclearwave.com.</li>
</ul>