John, Thanks for replying on this. I didn't know when I joined the list that there was a FEUD about slavery going on or I would have waited until it cooled down. You are the first that replied in the Haleys in IL. The only reason that I am interested in that case is I am trying to find out more on my Ludy Haley and his son John Wesley, which are my ancestors. I am thinking that my John Wesley took this slave, Sarah as his common-law wife and had children by her. He later married a white woman and had a child with her, which is my line. I am trying to find my kin by John Wesley Haley and this Black woman. I do know that John W. sired some Mulatto children. Well, my understanding, is that John Wesley traveled to IL with his father to visit his brother Meeks Haley in Gallatin Co. where this court case took place. See below: "How Illinois Received the First Slave from the South" To the Editor of The Atlanta Constitution: "I noticed an article in a recent copy of your paper from an Athens lady telling of the interest a Negro man created in North Georgia a few years ago. I was reminded of an incident that happened to my grandfather in 1848 when he moved to Illinois and carried a servant girl named Sarah. She was the first slave to be carried to that state and quite an excitement prevailed. The Southern family had not thought of this and were wholly unprepared for the reception they met. Many commenced calling after the arrival, bringing children with them, not so much to welcome them (as they learned later), but to see the great curiosity - a Negro slave. They soon began to talk to Sarah (unaware to the family) and to tell her that she was free and to come and live with them and she would be treated exactly as they were. Some even called her 'Miss Sarah'. Of course, all this was very flattering to the Negro girl. But to make a long story short, one morning Sarah was missing - had left the only friends she had ever known and gone with her so-called new friends to try the uncertain future with them. Grandfather (this was Meeks Haley, son of Ludy Haley) was a rather quick-tempered man and didn't mean to have his property taken from him in any such manner. So he engaged a lawyer - so did Sarah's friends - and a day was appointed for the trial. On the day set, quite a crowd had collected at the Courthouse and much excitement prevailed. Sarah's lawyer came riding into town with her behind him on the same horse. After all evidence and the lawyers' speeches, the case was decided in favor of Grandfather, but he was told to get his property out of the state. He paid his lawyer $50.00 and took Sarah on his horse in the same fashion that she rode into town and started for the Mason-Dixon Line. Can anyone find anything on this case? I am trying to find just who the case was against. David Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2002 20:39:35 -0600 From: "Jon Musgrave" jonm@midamer.net To: ILGALLAT-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: Haleys in Gallatin Co. IL David, Recently, David Payne posted a 1924 letter to the editor that had been published by the Atlanta Constitution. It contained the story of "the first slave in Illinois." Based on the family members involved, he thinks the story takes place in Gallatin County. The story is interesting. It's typical of the racist drivel even northern newspapers were sprouting in the 1920s, but that was during the highpoint of a newly energized Ku Klux Klan. A few years earlier President Wilson re-segregated the federal workforce six decades after Lincoln had desegregated it. In the early 1920s, the KKK even inducted President Harding into the organization at a White House ceremony. Obviously, the Klan didn't have as bad a reputation as it does now. I bring this up only to note that the newspaper article is offensive and is demeaning in its portrayal of Sarah, the slave. That said, it does contain a germ of an interesting story. Obviously Sarah was not the first slave brought into Illinois. There were many before and quite a few after her arrival into the state in 1848. I don't live in Gallatin County and haven't had a chance to check the courthouse, but something like the story could have very easily happened. At that point, Illinois law allowed the immigration of slaves or free blacks into the state only if the master or former master paid a $1,000 bond to the county. In March of 1848, voters approved Illinois' second constitution which called for the legislature to completely ban the emigration by blacks, free or slave, into Illinois. A few years later John A. Logan wrote such a law that passed the General Assembly. Although Haley's action of bringing Sarah with him didn't violate the law as it stood, he probably didn't pay the bond as required. There was an anti-slavery movement existing in Gallatin County at this point, and someone from that movement could have told Sarah she should be free. So at this point, everybody is at least partially wrong or liable in the eyes of the law: Haley for not pledging the bond, Sarah for not having her freedom papers filed with the county, and Sarah's helpers for stealing away the personal property of Mr. Haley. At this time the courts were ruling that a slave owner had the right to travel with a slave safely through Illinois and that the slave would have no right of freedom just because he or she entered Illinois. Only if the person resided in Illinois for six months or more did a slave could be determined free as in an 1846 case argued unsuccessfully by Lincoln (he was actually representing the slave holder in this one - the other side already had legal representation by the time he arrived in town). The year 1848 was a turbulent year for Gallatin County in part because of the legislature's decision to split the county and create Saline County. Either Equality or Shawneetown backers tried some election shenanigans to keep or steal the county seat. Equality is still the county seat for the first half of the year. The court last met there in June. Later, the court moved to the train depot in Shawneetown that the county board rented off of the Catholic priest who was using it as a church. Thus if a crowd gathered round the courthouse, it probably took place in the spring or summer session of the court in Equality. Also, that town had more of the anti-slavery activists in it than did Shawneetown. The problem is that 1848 is part of an era where most of the county court records are missing. If the case was held before a Justice of the Peace, the records would have never made it to the courthouse. Also, this could have been a civil case in where Haley sued the people helping Sarah, in which case it could have been heard by the county, or a criminal case of some type heard by the circuit court. If anyone ever finds more about this case I would be interested. Part of the research I'm doing is trying to find all we can about the lives of black residents in antebellum Gallatin County regardless of whether they were free or enslaved. David, thanks again for sending the letter to the editor to the list. Sincerely, Jon Musgrave www.IllinoisHistory.com David S. Payne, 1614 Chapman Rd., Anderson, SC, 864-225-3253 otime1@yahoo.com My line: http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=otime Searching for surnames mostly in Upstate SC/GA: ADDISON, ALLISON,ARENDALL, CANADY, CORBIN, COX, CRAIG, DEAN, FOWLER, HALEY, GORDON, HENSON, JAMES, McMILLIAN, McPHERSON, MOODY, PARKER, PAYNE, POINDEXTER, REDWINE, REID, SWANN, WEST, TODD, WHITMIRE --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Movies - coverage of the 74th Academy Awards�