What Happened to Lick Creek, Indiana

The first Black people arrived in what is now known as Indiana in 1811, 5 years before the territory became a state. They settled in a small community that they named Lick Creek in Southern Indiana, specifically Orange County. Johnathan Lindy led a group of eleven Black families who were free but fleeing the persecution of the south. They were joined by several Quaker families headed the same way and in the end they just settled together.  

By 1820 there were 96 Black people in Orange County counted on The Census. By 1860, there were 260. But for some unknown reason, large droves of Black people started leaving in 1862. Forty years later in 1902, William Thomas was the last Black person to sell his land and leave the area. Before the end of the 1930s, it was completely abandoned by even white citizens. 

We honestly shouldn’t know anything about Lick Creek as it was reclaimed by nature, as I like to put it. It’s been part of The Hoosier National Forrest for some time now. But one of the pastimes of people in the 1800s was capturing free Black people and forcing them into or back into slavery. Because of this, many Lick Creek residents kept copies of their freedom papers in the Orange County Courthouse. The most notable example is Mathew Thomas. He was born free, but in 1833 he had a Quaker resident write him freedom papers. 

In 1853 he took them to the courthouse to be recorded. This is right at the time when Governor James B. Ray convinced people a law needed to be passed because fugitive slaves would be flooding Indiana. The law stated any free Black person needed to pay $500 dollars, any white person employing a Black person would also be fined $500. His logic was as follows: 

“It is your right, to regulate for the future, by prompt correctives, the emigration into the State and the continuance of known paupers thrown upon us from any quarter. … If they cannot afford, by sureties, indemnity to our citizens by reasonable time, should be thrown back into the State or country from whence they came.” 

He also only referred to Black people as the “dregs of the offscourings of slave states,” and I would have just preferred a shorter more abstract slur. Basically, Ray said Black people shouldn’t be enslaved, but do you really want them as a neighbor 

Most people didn’t care, and these fines obviously didn’t work so in 1851 a new constitution was written stating any Black people entering would be turned away at the boarders. But this is Indiana, most of us mind our business and all but the vilest racists ignored this because nobody has time to do border patrol in Indiana and make sure Tom at the grocery store hasn’t hired a Black cashier. 

Lick Creek, and the population kept growing without any issue until The Civil War. While there’s been archaeological digs recently to figure out what happened we don’t know for sure. For some reason after the Civil War the area rapidly declined in population. It could have been the industrial boom in major cities, could be declining fertility of farmland. Your guess is as good as mine. It’s not a major part of history, but it’s an interesting part. Also, a good reminder that no matter our race, gender or sexual orientation, Hoosiers will just ignore any laws we don’t like.