Editing Equality, Illinois (section)

==History==
{{Unreferenced section|date=February 2024}}
On Jan. 26, 1826, Equality was officially established by the General Assembly as the county seat of Gallatin County. [[Gallatin County Courthouse (Illinois)|The courthouse]] was built in 1827 for the amount of $1,300.00. Court was held there until 1851, when all legal documents were removed to Shawneetown, The building was later used as a school, church & local society meetings. It was destroyed by fire Nov. 28, 1894.

===Salt Works===
[[France|French]] settlers extracted salt near Equality as early as 1735, while [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] made salt here long before then. In 1803, the American Indians ceded their "[[Illinois Salines|Great Salt Springs]]" to the US government by treaty. The government then leased the springs, requiring the holder to produce a certain quantity of salt each year or pay a penalty. The salt works is referred to as the "United States Saline" in old documents.

[[Isaac White (militia colonel)|Isaac White]] was in charge of the salt works in 1811. White volunteered for the [[Indiana National Guard|Indiana Militia]] that year, and was killed at the [[Battle of Tippecanoe]].

Special territorial laws permitted exceptions to anti-slavery treaties at these salines, and slaves were used extensively in manufacturing salt. The census of 1820 for Gallatin County listed 239 slaves or servants.

During the 1820s, Gallatin County included what is now [[Saline County, Illinois|Saline County]] as its western half. In 1826, the [[county seat]] was moved from [[Old Shawneetown, Illinois|Old Shawneetown]], on the eastern edge of the county, to the new village of Equality, near the center of what was then Gallatin County. Equality remained the county seat until the formation of Saline County in 1847.

In 1838, a local salt maker and illegal slave trader, [[John Crenshaw|John Hart Crenshaw]], began building [[Crenshaw House (Gallatin County, Illinois)|his manor house]] at Hickory Hill just five miles east of Equality; he used the house for his business of [[kidnapping]] free blacks and breeding slaves to sell into slavery as part of the [[Reverse Underground Railroad]].

The Great Salt Springs are located southeast of Equality, on federal land along the south bank of the Saline River, seven-tenths of a mile west of Illinois Route 1 on Salt Well Road. Half Moon Lick, where the saltworks first developed as a large industry, is on private property southwest of Equality.

[[File:Salineriverilscenic.jpg|thumb|left|200px|The [[Saline River (Illinois)|Saline River]] of southeastern [[Illinois]] near the U.S. Salines, in Equality, Illinois, where leased out [[Kentucky]] slaves boiled down [[salt brine]] water from the river into usable salt for sale.]]
[[File:The Old Slave House.jpg|thumb|left|200px|1970s photograph of the [[Crenshaw House (Gallatin County, Illinois)|Old Slave House]].]]
[[File:John&SinaCrenshaw.jpg|thumb|left|125px|John Crenshaw, a notorious illegal kidnapper slave trader, holding a crutch, for support because of a missing leg severed in an attack by an axe-wielding slave, with his wife, Francine "Sina" Taylor, from the only known photograph of them, date unknown.]]