Haunted Illinois

Thrill-seekers probably should head to the infamous Hickory Hill in Equality, Illinois - or what is best known as the "Old Slave House".

Built by a man named John Hart Crenshaw as a salt mining factory, the work the field entails is backbreaking and brutal, leading him to resort to slavery as a means to keep the business going.

In fact, he would even kidnap free blacks along with their families to put to work in the mines - all in a state where slavery is anything but legal.  Confined in a sweltering, cramped, and hardly ventilated room, while tied to the walls by heavy metal rings and metal balls, countless slaves died inside until Crenshaw's crime was discovered in 1842.

In the 1920s, it was turned into a tourist attraction, as the place where "Slavery Existed in Illinois".  Almost immediately, visitors began to report strange happenings in the site, especially in the attic where the slaves were kept,in the form of odd noises like cries, whimpers, singing, and even the rattling of chains.  They also complained of being touched by invisible hands, cold chills, and the feeling of intense fear.

Thus, as the years passed, thrill-seelers and paranormal hunters replaced the sightseers, drawn by the weird activity in the "Old Slave House".  A common dare there is to be able to spend a night in the attic. 

However, most of those who took the dare had the habit of running from the house after only a few hours inside.  To date, there has only been one person to have braved a night inside - a reporter named David Rodgers.  He described his experience as "anything but mundane", and heard many unidentifiable sounds throughout his stay - his recorder even caught stranger voices that he himself had not heard.