Equality, Illinois should not be confused with Equality Illinois.
| Equality, Illinois | |
| Settlement Type: | Village |
| Image Map1: | Illinois in United States (US48).svg |
| Map Caption1: | Location of Illinois in the United States |
| Coordinates: | 37.7364°N -88.3444°W |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | United States |
| Subdivision Type1: | State |
| Subdivision Name1: | Illinois |
| Subdivision Type2: | County |
| Subdivision Name2: | Gallatin |
| Subdivision Type3: | Township |
| Established Title: | Founded |
| Leader Title: | Mayor |
| Leader Title1: | Village president |
| Unit Pref: | Imperial |
| Area Footnotes: | [1] |
| Area Total Km2: | 2.33 |
| Area Total Sq Mi: | 0.90 |
| Area Land Km2: | 2.27 |
| Area Land Sq Mi: | 0.88 |
| Area Water Km2: | 0.05 |
| Area Water Sq Mi: | 0.02 |
| Elevation Ft: | 427 |
| Population As Of: | 2020 |
| Population Total: | 539 |
| Population Density Km2: | 237.19 |
| Population Density Sq Mi: | 614.60 |
| Timezone1: | CST |
| Utc Offset1: | -6 |
| Timezone1 Dst: | CDT |
| Utc Offset1 Dst: | -5 |
| Postal Code Type: | ZIP Code(s) |
| Postal Code: | 62934 |
| Area Code: | 618 |
| Blank Name Sec2: | FIPS code |
| Blank1 Name Sec2: | GNIS ID |
| Blank1 Info Sec2: | 2398838 |
| Blank2 Name Sec2: | Wikimedia Commons |
Equality is a village in Gallatin County, Illinois, United States. The population was 539 at the 2020 census.[2] Near the village are two points of interest, the Crenshaw House and the Garden of the Gods Wilderness. Equality was the county seat of Gallatin County from 1826 - 1851.
On Jan. 26, 1826, Equality was officially established by the General Assembly as the county seat of Gallatin County. 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.
French settlers extracted salt near Equality as early as 1735, while Native Americans made salt here long before then. In 1803, the American Indians ceded their "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 was in charge of the salt works in 1811. White volunteered for the 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 as its western half. In 1826, the county seat was moved from 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 Hart Crenshaw, began building 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.
Equality is located in western Gallatin County at 37.7364°N -88.3444°W (37.736472, -88.344473),[3] on the north side of the Saline River, a southeast-flowing tributary of the Ohio River.
According to the 2010 census, Equality has a total area of 0.906sqmi, of which 0.89sqmi (or 98.23%) is land and 0.016sqmi (or 1.77%) is water.[4]
As of the 2020 census[5] there were 539 people, 218 households, and 129 families residing in the village. The population density was 600.22PD/sqmi. There were 280 housing units at an average density of 311.8/sqmi. The racial makeup of the village was 96.67% White, 0.19% Asian, 0.19% from other races, and 2.97% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.04% of the population.
There were 218 households, out of which 27.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 36.70% were married couples living together, 20.64% had a female householder with no husband present.
The median income for a household in the village was $40,833, and the median income for a family was $48,750. About 20.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 12.9% of those under age 18 and 15.3% of those age 65 or over.