JoAnn, Thanks for the very thoughtful response. I agree with most everything, but I do think that the company bringing in black strikebreakers may have incensed the striking workers all the more. I either heard or read in "Bloody Williamson" the book that the blacks were brought in by boxcar and the strikers shot volleys into the sides of them, causing blood to squirt out of the holes. I remember Culp or Colp very well. It was the last bastion of unregulated illegal alcohol and related activity in S. Ill.,when I was at SIU in the '50s and 60s. Illinois being designated early as a non-slave state still made it a free-for-all for traders and traffickers. They caught, legally too, all persons appearing to be blacks and sold them back into slavery. Some went to Missouri, but many went right back on the Wabash and Ohio rivers to the South where they were back in bondage, if I have that right. This probably was the case along the St. Louis Road from Shawneetown through Benton to St. Louis and the Mississippi. An interesting topic. Ernie

Ernie, where in our history did you read the following statement?.... " Illinois being designated early as a non-slave state still made it a free-for-all for traders and traffickers. They caught, legally too, all persons appearing to be blacks and sold them back into slavery."

And from "Pioneer Folks and Places", 1939 by Barbara Burr Hubbs: "Africa, the name of the negro settlement in the northeast corner of Williamson County, recalls the story of the McCreery family of Franklin County. Alexander McCreery came from Kentucky to Jordon's Fort in 1812, and his father John McCreery brought a number of family slaves to the new homestead, Fancy farm. These negroes were valued at more than $10,000 and were held in Illinois as indentured servants. When the state was admitted to the union with anti-slavery clause in the constitution, John McCreery took most of his slaves to the Missouri home of other sons. The other slaves were freed but remained as members of the McCreery household. When Mr. and Mrs. McCreery died, Alexander McCreery inherited their slave property in Missouri. He brought them back to Illinois, set them free, and settled them on land adjoining his own. Among the McCreerys slaves in Missouri was an elderly negress, whose husband was not owned by the McCreerys. Rather than separate the couple, Alexander McCreery purchased the man for $300 and brought him along to the settlement that became Africa. this man was Richard Inge. He was a shoemaker, and by his labor paid for eighty acres of land near the McCreery farm. Another negro family in the neighborhood were the Stewarts, brought from Kentucky by their master , freed and given forty acres of land for each family. As freedmen, they took their former owners name. Africa has always been known for its camp meetings, and many people visit these services to enjoy the singing. The first negro brought to the county came to Corinth township in 1820 with Spencer Wadkins. Mr. Wadkins always called him a freedman. Frank Jordan is supposed to have had two negro slaves, and others are listed in the various census at scattered farms in the county." ***** I might add...my family lived just north of Africa and it eventually became a part of Williamson though I am sure in the early days it was a part of Franklin County. I also know some of the descendants of these families and no where are there pioneer families that are more respected than these hard working people. And as a side note...Africa Church should be rebuilt and restored as a memorial to these people...I am willing to contribute to that endeavor and if and when it happens, I will also come home and put some sweat into it too. Betty in Fla