From 1786 to the early 1830s, over twenty enslaved people lived and worked at Fort Hunter. Their parents and ancestors had been stolen from Africa. The McAllister family, who created all of Fort Hunter's earliest surviving buildings, was one of the largest slave owners in Dauphin County. Along with free laborers, Blacks worked on the Fort Hunter plantation-farming, cooking, and running the dairy. Among them were at least two families, the Craigs and the Jenkins. At that time Fort Hunter included a farm, a tavern, a distillery and a mill.
Sall Craig fled from Fort Hunter bondage in 1828 when she was about 60. Although owned by the McAllisters since she was a girl, they had planned to sell her because of financial reversals. The sales advertisement described her as "strong and active of her age...an excellent washer, baker and cook and understands the management of a dairy and soap boiling." By then small communities of free Blacks had formed in nearby Harrisburg and Halifax. Perhaps they provided aid and refuge to Sall, but nothing more is known of her story.
(Inscription under the image in the center left) This woman ran away from slavery, just like Sall Craig had.
(Inscription under the image in the lower left) In 2014, ground penetrating radar identified a total of nine graves, four of which are unmarked at the African American cemetery that was once part of the Fort Hunter property.
(Inscription above the image in the upper right) Known enslaved people that once lived at Fort Hunter;
Cato, Charles, Andrew Craig, Eliza Craig, Lucy Craig, Sall Craig, Daniel, George Hoofnagle, Hetty Gray, Isaac, Jack, son of Cato, James, Jem, Judy, Hallie Jenkins, Jack Jenkins, Maria Murry, Mary, Nance, Ned, Tyra.
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