Lunatic Asylum for Slaves....

[5fish]

I was looking for a grave and found this haunted Hospital for the Insane: Slaves... it in Virginia... I know nothing about its history but if you are into haunted places this may be an interesting one...


OLD CENTRAL STATE HOSPITAL
Home > Historical Buildings > Old Central State Hospital
http://www.hauntedplaces.org/item/old-central-state-hospital/

Central State Hospital, previously Central Lunatic Asylum, was the first institution in the country for African Americans of "unsound mind." In the 1840s, if slave owners could pay the fees they could have their slaves committed. Some of the old grounds still operates as a hospital; other buildings have been abandoned. Locals say they have seen and heard many odd phenomena in the area.

History:
In 1848, slaves in Virginia could be admitted to private asylums if their owners paid for their treatment, but not all owners could afford it, and whites were always given priority admission. It was also believed that when blacks tried to flee captivity, they were suffering from a mental illness called drapetomania, which Samuel A. Cartwright stated to be a consequence of masters who "made themselves too familiar with slaves, treating them as equals".

The Confederacy established a hospital for wounded soldiers at Howard's Grove in 1862. It was reassigned in 1870 to the treatment of "colored persons of unsound mind" and was the first to offer treatment exclusively to the black population of Virginia. Dorothea Dix visited the hospital in 1875, during her travels for mental health reform, and donated pictures and musical instruments.

In 1869 it became a Hospital of the Colored Insane.... links

http://knowledgenuts.com/2015/03/29/the-rare-salvaged-history-of-the-central-lunatic-asylum/

http://chpn.net/news/2008/07/09/a-short-history-of-the-central-lunatic-asylum_1773/

I hope anyone visiting this place have some spooky thrills...

 

[JohnW.]

http://www.prairieghosts.com/slave.html

As far as Illinois slavery went, this is reported to be the most haunted house in southern Illinois.

 

[James B White]

I was looking for a grave and found this haunted Hospital for the Insane: Slaves... it in Virginia... I know nothing about its history but if you are into haunted places this may be an interesting one...
...
I hope anyone visiting this place have some spooky thrills...

I completely missed this thread the first time around, but the original Howard's Grove Hospital is long gone, isn't it? Or is it? Would be very cool to see! Just a note, it was never a hospital for slaves, because during the war the building was a CS military hospital for white men, but it was for former slaves.

From one of the linked articles at http://chpn.net/2008/07/09/a-short-history-of-the-central-lunatic-asylum/ :
"it was moved to Petersburg in 1882 and is now racially integrated and known as Central State Hospital."

I think that Central State Hospital is still in operation: http://www.csh.dbhds.virginia.gov So it can't really be visited.

Is the old Howard's Grove facility on Church Hill that housed the Confederate Hospital, which became the original lunatic asylum, still standing? That would be cool to see, as it was also a hospital for Confederate soldiers during the war.

My interest in this is due to the following part, from the same link above: "Through a lease from Mr. Bacon Tait (or Tate)..." I just wrote a book about him.

So, in an attempt to find the original building that's the lunatic hospital and Confederate hospital, called the Howard's Grove property...

Here's a map of the Richmond Central Lunatic Asylum hospital on Church hill in 1877:
http://www.historicmapworks.com/Map/US/35140/Plate+B/Richmond+1877/Virginia/

Looks like it was approximately on the corner of S St. and 23rd St. in Richmond but I'm not even sure those street names are legit anymore, so far from downtown. The silly little Kindle I'm using is terrible with maps--either that or I don't have the right apps installed, or I don't know how to use it for maps. Naw, couldn't be that... But if anyone has better map capability, especially Google's aerial view or street view, to see if there's any cool old buildings in the triple block marked in green at the link, that would be it. I'll post it again, this link:
http://www.historicmapworks.com/Map/US/35140/Plate+B/Richmond+1877/Virginia/

Or if that link doesn't work, it's Plate B here and says it's georeferenced, whatever that means
http://www.historicmapworks.com/Atlas/US/8108/Richmond+1877/

 

[Dedej]

Thanks for this thread!

 

[mofederal]

The Old Slave House in Southern Illinois, is actually called Hickory Hill, and is located near Equality, Ill. It has had a very haunted reputation for many years. I went to college with a girl who lived a mile or two from there. She had taken a tour of it a long time ago. It is now an Illinois State Park. I gather it is now closed and needs restoration. It is near Old Shawneetown, ill.

http://thesouthern.com/news/local/f...cle_40effc33-b49f-564e-a733-249c7324478d.html

 

[Dedej]

View attachment 161496


The Old Slave House in Southern Illinois, is actually called Hickory Hill, and is located near Equality, Ill. It has had a very haunted reputation for many years. I went to college with a girl who lived a mile or two from there. She had taken a tour of it a long time ago. It is now an Illinois State Park. I gather it is now closed and needs restoration. It is near Old Shawneetown, ill.

http://thesouthern.com/news/local/f...cle_40effc33-b49f-564e-a733-249c7324478d.html

Definitely heard about this place. It was owned by John Crenshaw.

The Reverse Underground Railroad is the term used for the pre-American Civil War practice of kidnapping free blacks from free states and transporting them into the Southern slave states for sale as slaves. The Reverse Underground Railroad operated for eighty-five years, from 1780-1865. The name is a reference to the Underground Railroad, the informal network of abolitionists and sympathizers who helped to smuggle escaped slaves to freedom, generally in Canada.

John Hart Crenshaw (November 19, 1797 – December 4, 1871) was an American landowner, salt maker, illegal slave trader kidnapper, and illegal slave breeder, based out of Gallatin County, Illinois. Although Illinois was a free state, Crenshaw leased the salt works in nearby Equality from the government, which permitted the use of slaves for the arduous labor of hauling and boiling brackish water to produce salt. Crenshaw was widely believed to be involved in the kidnapping of free black people in free states to sell them as slaves in the South, an enormously profitable trade, later known as the Reverse Underground Railroad. His great-great grandson was notorious Texas serial killer Joe Ball.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1997-05-25/news/9705250164_1_slaves-underground-railroad-reverse

 

[mofederal]

Crenshaw was scum of a lower order. Some today say he did not do these things and the stories were made up by a later owner of the property. There is plenty of documented proof he did all of the things he is accused of and more. There is a story, one man researched and holds true of a court case brought by a formerly free man who escaped back to freedom, and he brought suit against Crenshaw and won. Another telling point was that the stories were being told of Crenshaw before 1900. It was a tourist attraction beginning around 1920. The stories about the house have been told since before the Civil War.