Anyone out there know if this history book addresses Negroes or blacks in those counties? Some towns tolerated them and others ran them out of town, you know. Part of history, union activity, and attrocious fuled by prejudice. Ernie Heltsley

The sections on Gallatin County seem to contain the most about blacks, and is by far the fairest (especially if you compare it to the History of Union County, Ky., just across the river published a year earlier). The authors of each county history are not listed. However, we think C. J. Lemen, a Shawneetown educator, probably wrote the Gallatin County section. He wasn't from Gallatin County which might explain why he went so far in the crimes section even though it embarrassed some important people in the county. Also, during the Civil War, he had led a colored unit of Union troops and his grandfather had been an Emancipation Baptist minister. Both of those might explain the descriptions of black history without the heavy stereotypical treatment normally found during that era. Jon Musgrave www.IllinoisHistory.com P.S. What area/town are you researching in connection to black history? ----- Original Message ----- From: <HELTSLEY@aol.com> To: <ILSALINE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2000 11:36 AM Subject: Re: [ILSALINE-L] History of Gallatin, Saline, Hamilton, Franklin and Williams... > Anyone out there know if this history book addresses Negroes or blacks in > those counties? Some towns tolerated them and others ran them out of town, > you know. > Part of history, union activity, and attrocious fuled by prejudice. > > Ernie Heltsley > >