Black history shared with genealogical society

Jesse Rouse was born in Saline County in 1945 and he was raised in Carrier Mills, educated at Dunbar School and Southeastern Illinois College. He moved to Elgin, Illinois in 1967 and (in his own words) "was employed as a 'counselor at the state hospital' for two years but then became a police officer in 1969. I later became a detective and forensic artist and retired in 1996 when I moved back to this area."

Rouse's speech became a response to questions on local black history that were asked by audience members from the Saline County Genealogical Society. Rouse was very obliging in answering each question.

What was learned was that blacks came to Southern Illinois before the War of 1812 and fought in that conflict when it effected this area. Blacks fought in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and the Spanish American War. "Black men fought in every major American war since the Revolution,"

he said.

Rouse shared many tips on doing historical research on family members and their lives.

One fact that colors family histories nationwide is that the criminals in a family leave better historical records than the honest citizens of their times. Jail arrest records are prime sources for historians, as are divorces and other court activity. We end up knowing about the bad apples while the achievers get less notice.

The Mitchell family came to this area when their owner (a white man), decided to set his slaves free.

Mitchell provided land in Illinois and purchased the family's individual papers proving they were free in Marshall County, Tenn. The year was 1845. The land they settled on was located in Pope County, Miller's Grove. Free blacks had to keep their papers on them at all times.

Rouse said that he learned from his study of local history that Abraham Lincoln played a part in separating Saline from Gallatin County.

In 1853 his forebear Edmund Rouse came to Saline from Pope County. He was associated with the Mitchell family, the freed slaves of Lakeview Community near Carrier Mills. The Mitchell's had taken the name of their former owner when they arrived in Illinois. They came from Pope County to Saline County.

Miller's Grove, in Pope County became a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Zacharias Taborn, John Mitchell and Jacob Rouse started the Lakeview Community near Carrier Mills in Saline County. Other early settlers were the Allen, Blackwell, Evans, Cofield and Cole families.

It was a welcoming community where Native Americans, blacks and mixed race individuals could live in peace and harmony.

Rouse shared many other historical details.

Freed blacks risked capture and sale back in the southern states, especially if they did not have their papers on their persons.

Illinois wrote into its Constitution the stipulation that although Illinois was a free state, slavery would be allowed in the salt mines that give our county its name.

The French explorers were less prejudicial in choosing wives than the English because they were single men looking for companionship whereas the English settlers tended to arrive with their families. Indentured servants were allowed by the original Illinois Constitution and many black slaves were kept in a form of slavery in Illinois as grandfathered indentured servants.

There were Emancipation Churches, churches formed by free blacks.

There were "sundown towns" where blacks were not allowed after sunset.

Many southerners moved north as crops failed and land went bad. These migrants from the southern states brought their culture and beliefs with them to Southern Illinois and these were absorbed by local culture.

The cotton gin was invented in 1790 when there were fewer slaves.

But the cotton gin made cotton so profitable that it became the cash crop of the south.

By the start of the Civil War there were 4 million black slaves in America.

Cotton had gone from $50 a pound to $1,500 a pound.

Rouse said he tried to keep every document of his life and activities so his grandchildren and great-grandchildren would have a record of their roots.

He advised the audience to do the same.