Tuesday, November 09, 1999
Groups argue over slave jail's fate
Museum, historical group vie
BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
GERMANTOWN, Ky. — Located in a remote corner of Mason County, tucked inside an old tobacco barn and shrouded in history, stands a pre-Civil War building that was used as a holding pen for slaves traveling from Virginia to plantations in the deep South.
It may soon be the subject of a court battle.
The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, the planned $80 million museum dedicated to the history of slaves seeking freedom in the North, wants to move the two-story log jail for eventual placement in the museum.
But historic preservation officials in Kentucky don't want the structure moved, saying it has more historical significance in its original location.
The sides appear headed for what could be a legal showdown over the historic building and where it would be best suited for posterity.
Museum officials say that while they understand Kentucky's concerns, the far rural location of the building — on a farm just east of Germantown near the Mason/Bracken County line, about an hour from Cincinnati — makes it to difficult for people to visit.
“The groups that are interested in preservation of history need to find constructive ways to work together,” said Carl Westmoreland, external affairs director at the museum.
“But part of our racism, all of our racism, manages to grow in the fertile field of denial,” he said. “If the world does not see things like this slave pen, we have a harder time admitting things that happened. And the purpose of the freedom center is to help people learn what is rooted in truth, not myth.”
The slave jail is on the farm of Ray Evers, a contractor who lives in Grosebeck and has owned the farm for 25 years. About a year ago he contacted Freedom Center officials and told them about the piece of history still intact, now surrounded by a tobacco barn.
Mr. Evers agreed to donate the jail as long as the center replaced the barn it would have to tear down to get to the jail.
“I found out it could have qualified for the National Reg ister of Historic Places shortly after I bought the farm, but I didn't do anything about that,” he said.
“When I heard about the Underground Railroad museum I thought they would be interested. I probably would have done the same thing with the state, but they never approached me about it,” Mr. Evers said Monday.
“That's true, we didn't know about it,” said Richard Jett, a manager with the Kentucky Heritage Council in Frankfort, who surveys and registers historic property.
“But now we do understand this transaction is taking place to move the building, and we are being threatened with the removal of a building from its historic setting and historic context,” Mr. Jett said.
Kentucky is also trying to do more to preserve the state's history with the Underground Railroad, the system of back roads and hiding places used to transport slaves to freedom in the North before the Civil War.
“By moving this building to Cincinnati, our ability to teach our students and other Kentuckians about the evils of slavery will be significantly hampered,” Mr. Jett said.
Last week, Mr. Jett and other officials from the Heritage Council tried to view the building but were turned away by a man making drawings of the structure for the Freedom Center.
“We believe they are preparing to move it,” he said. “We're not opposed to the Freedom Center. This is an important story to tell. We just question the appropriateness of what they are doing.”
Alicestyne Turley-Adams of West Bend, Ky., a consultant to the Heritage Council on African-American preservation issues, has written Kentucky Attorney General Ben Chandler, asking him to intervene.
“Use your office to pursue every possible remedy to protect the histor ic, economic and tourism related interests of all Kentucky citizens by initiating efforts to preserve Kentucky's rare and nationally significant historical artifacts and assets within our own borders,” she said in her letter.
Mr. Westmoreland said the slave jail, used to hold slaves en route to farms throughout the South in the years before the Civil War, will present a powerful, profound message and lesson to Freedom Center visitors.
“Seeing this slave pen reminded me of when I went to Auschwitz,” Mr. Westmoreland said, referring to the Nazi death camp in Poland where Jews were killed during World War II.
“I learned that I lost fellow human beings there, and that those things could have happened to me,” he said. “That's what this building can teach.
“Or it can stay out in field instead of giving the public a better understanding of our history.”
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