Have you ever wondered
about slavery in Kentucky, Ohio's neighbor just south of the Ohio
River? The written record is very limited for poor people and for
enslaved people.
These groups are almost invisible in Kentucky
history, and when they do appear, history offers a narrow and biased
view of their lives. Therefore, the artifacts they left behind and
the patterns of those artifacts at the places they lived and worked
must tell their stories.
Classified as the Upper South or a border state, Kentucky has a history of slavery that dates from the earliest permanent European settlements in the state until the end of the Civil War.
First of all, it is
important to establish that most Kentuckians did not own
enslaved
people. Primarily wealthy white men did – men like
Henry Clay, John Rowan, Isaac Shelby, John Speed, and George Rogers
Clark.
Kentucky had been reserved by Virginia and consequently the method of settlement was purely a matter governed by that State and was separate and apart from the system which was employed by the United States Government. Furthermore, Kentucky lands were all given out by 1700, just one year after the beginning of our national period: The federal land policy was at that time just beginning. Virginia gave out the lands in Kentucky by what is known as the patent system, and all the settlers in Kentucky held their lands by one of three different kinds of rights
History shows early inhabitants of Kentucky can be easily divided into three classes, the landed proprietors, their slaves, and the tenant class of whites. The second and third classes tended to keep alive the status of the former and led to the perpetuation of the landed aristocracy. In Kentucky, however, the laws of descent were always against primogeniture and this resulted in the division of the lands of the wealthier class with each new generation.
The institution of slavery in Kentucky, as in every other State, depended for the most part upon the existence of large plantations. The only reason Kentucky had such large estates was because of the method by which the land was given out by the mother State. Economically Kentucky was not adapted to plantation life. The greater part of the State required then, as it still does, the personal care and supervision of the owner or tenant. The original distribution of land made this impossible and there grew up a large class of landholders who seldom labored with their hands, because of the traditional system. A large number of inhabitants as early as 1805, Michaux found, were cultivating their lands themselves, but those who could do so had all the work done by Negro slaves.
The Virginia legislature of 1779 found it necessary to establish a second method of settlement in Kentucky in response to the demands of the large number of people who were migrating to the west of the Vlleghenies. Provision was made for the granting of preemption rights to new settlers and also for the introduction of a very generous system of settlement rights.
(“Slavery in Kentucky 1792 to 1865: Development and General Status of Slavery https://www.electricscotland.com/history/america/slavery_kentucky2.htm.)
For nearly the first 40 years of its statehood, Kentucky’s population of slaves grew faster than that of whites. Enslaved African Americans represented 24% by 1830, but declined to 19.5% by 1860 on the eve of the Civil War. The majority of enslaved people in Kentucky were concentrated in the cities of Louisville and Lexington, in the fertile Bluegrass Region as well the Jackson Purchase, both the largest hemp- and tobacco-producing areas in the state. Most of the early settlers were from Virginia, and some – planters who grew hemp and tobacco – relied on slave labor as they developed larger, more permanent plantations.
In addition, many enslaved people lived in the Ohio River counties where they were most often used in skilled trades or as house servants. Few people lived in slavery in the mountainous regions of eastern and southeastern Kentucky. Those that did that were held in eastern and southeastern Kentucky served primarily as artisans and service workers in towns.
("Kentucky and the Question of Slavery Source.” www.usgennet.org. KET Kentucky Educational Television.)
As a border state with both independent, hardscrabble white farming families as well as plantations like those of the deep south, Kentucky had economic ties to slavery and engagement with northern free state industrialism and also western frontier ethos.
Subsistence agriculture could be done without any slave labor, although some subsistence farmers held a few slaves with whom they would work. Some owners also used enslaved African Americans in mining and manufacturing operations, for work on riverboats and along the waterfront, and to work in skilled trades in towns.
Many slaves had to find spouses "abroad,” on a neighboring farm. Often, African American men had to live apart from their wives and children. Slaves were frequently "hired out," leased on temporary basis to other farmers or business for seasonal work. This was a common practice across the upper south. Some historians estimate that 12% of the slaves in Lexington and 16% of the slaves in Louisville were hired out.
(Tony Curtis. "Understanding the Complexities of Slavery in Kentucky.” CivilWarGovernors.org. Kentucky Historical Society. https://civilwargovernors.org/understanding-the-complexities-of-slavery-in-kentucky/. August 18, 2014.)
Slave pen exterior - Mason County, Kentucky slave pen. National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Cincinnati
So, Kentucky entered the Union as a state deeply divided over the issue of slavery. The conflicting pulls of northern economic relations, westward expansion, and fundamental support for slavery and southern-style plantations caused Kentuckians to be morally divided over the issue of slavery before, during, and immediately after the Civil War.
In the north and east, Kentuckians were ideologically and economically moving away from slavery. Economically, the area was diversifying. More and more of these Kentuckians broadened their traditional tobacco-and-hemp livelihoods by cultivating grains and cereals, breeding horses and livestock and manufacturing goods.
By 1850, the residents had given Kentucky the South’s second broadest economic base. Generally, a more diversified economy meant less reliance on slavery, which helps to explain Kentucky’s rising emancipation ideology. Already, diversified Kentucky had a profitable market in the excess slaves sold to the Deep South.In fact, Kentucky exported more slaves than did most states. From 1850 to 1860, 16 percent of enslaved African Americans were sold out of state, as part of the forced displacement to the Deep South of a total of more than a million African Americans before the Civil War.
(Garry Adelman. “A House Divided: Civil War Kentucky.” American Battlefield Trust. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/house-divided-civil-war-kentucky. April 16, 2010.)
Many slaves were sold directly to plantations in the Deep South from the Louisville slave market, or were transported by slave traders along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to slave markets in New Orleans, hence the later euphemism "sold down the river" for any sort of betrayal. Kentucky had a surplus of slaves due to reduced labor needs from changes in local agriculture, as well as substantial out-migration by white families from Kentucky.
(“History of slavery in Kentucky.” WikiMili https://wikimili.com/en/History_of_slavery_in_Kentucky. January 13, 2022.)
A formerly enslaved man in Floyd County, Kentucky, described it this way:“Slave traders came into the county to buy up slaves for the Southern plantations, and cotton or sugar fields—Slave families were frequently separated, some members [who were] mean, thieving, or were runaways were sold (first) down the river.”
Lewis Clarke, a slave in Madison County, said: “I never knew a whole family to live together, till all were grown up, in my life. There is almost always, in every family, some one or more keen and bright, or else sullen and stubborn slave, whose influence they are afraid of on the rest of the family, and such a one must take a walking ticket to the South … Generally there is but little more scruple about separating families than there is with a man who keeps sheep in selling off the lambs in the fall.”
(M.
Jay Stottman AND Lori C. Stahlgren “Heritage Spotlight No. 5
Uncovering the Lives Of Kentucky's Enslaved People.”
https://transportation.ky.gov/Archaeology/Documen/Uncovering%20the%20Lives%20of%20Kentucky%27s%20Enslaved%20People.pdf.
2017 Kentucky Archaeological Survey.)
A third faction of Kentuckians was ambivalent about slavery. Although not economically bound to the institution themselves, they justified it for several reasons. Some called it a “necessary evil” for life in an agricultural state. Others, prejudiced against or wary of a large free-black population, regarded slavery as a means of control.
Kentucky contained small but notable free black hamlets throughout the state. About 5% of Kentucky's black population was free by 1860. Free Negroes were among the slaveholders; in 1830, this group held slaves in 29 of Kentucky's counties. In some cases, people would purchase their spouse, their children, or other enslaved relatives in order to protect them until they could free them. After the 1831 Nat Turner's slave rebellion, the legislature passed new restrictions against manumission, requiring acts of the legislature to gain freedom.
(“Notable Kentucky African Americans Database: Slave Owners, Slaves, Free Blacks, Free Mulattoes in Kentucky, 1850-1870 [by county N-Z].” University of Kentucky, https://nkaa.uky.edu/subject.php?sub_id=179.)
Beginning in the 1820s and extending through the 1840s and 1850s, many white families migrated west to Missouri, south to Tennessee, or southwest to Texas. The larger slave-holding families took slaves with them, as one kind of forced migration. These factors combined to create greater instability for enslaved families in Kentucky than in some other areas.
A slave auction in progress in Lexington, Kentucky
"Where Did the Slaves In Kentucky Come From?"
The short answer is Africa, though this does not get down to the specifics as to which country or region of Africa. A search at that level will require a review of slave ship records that can be matched with the archival records of slave owners, and a paper trail that follows the lives of individual slaves who were sold and resold, all added in with a good deal of luck and chance. There is not a holdings or a collection of records in the University of Kentucky Special Collections that will give the origins of all Black persons who were held as slaves in Kentucky.
Below is one method of
following the trail of slaves in and from Kentucky based on
information from the former slaves' perspectives:
“In
1850, there were a few free Black persons in Kentucky who were noted
as born in Africa in the U.S. Census. They may have been former
slaves in the U.S., but they had not forgotten that they came from
Africa. The same can be said of the thousands of others who were
enslaved in 1850; they too knew of their origins even though slaves
were not listed by name in the census, nor were their birth locations
noted.
“The 1870 U.S. Census was the first attempt to gain data on foreign born parents - "a real boon in identifying immigrant ancestors" [source: "1870 Census" an Ancestry.com website]. The heading of column 10 on the 1870 U.S. Census sheet was labeled "Place of Birth, Naming State or Territory of U.S.; or the Country, if of foreign birth." The headings of columns 11 and 12 on the U.S. Census sheet read "Parentage: Father of Foreign Birth / Mother of Foreign Birth."
“According to the 1870
Instructions to Assistant Marshals, 'If of Foreign birth, the Country
will be named as specifically as possible … The inquiries in
columns numbered 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 19, and 20, are of such a nature
that these columns only require to be filled when the answer to the
inquiry is Yes.'
“Though the answer
would have been 'Yes' for many African Americans, the term 'foreign
born parents' and 'immigrant ancestors' did not apply to former
slaves born in Africa or the African-born parents of former slaves.
Slaves were not considered immigrants, they had come to the United
States as property, and that status was upgraded to each being a
person with U.S. citizenship in 1868 with the Ratification of the
14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“The
1870 census instruction manual said nothing about African Americans
being citizens or not being citizens. What is found most often in
terms of 'Parentage' of African Americans on the 1870 census sheets
is nothing, the columns are blank …
“In the search of
Kentucky-born Black or Mulatto persons with African-born parents,
there were no names found in the 1870 Census, but there were at least
seven persons noted as born in Africa and living in Kentucky. The
numbers would increase when the 1880 Census was completed. Those
enumerated were old and with estimated birth years as early as the
mid to late 1700s.
“Perhaps it was an end of life decision that made them want Africa noted in the census record which was a government document that would show that their parents were born outside the U.S. Perhaps it was the decision of the individual census taker who noted the birth location.”
(Reinette F. Jones. “Born in Africa, Born in Kenucky.” https://nkaa.uky.edu/nkaa/items/show/3161. September 26, 2016.)
Greenup County Slavery Numbers
Greenup County was formed in 1803 from a portion of Mason County. Both the county and the county seat are named Greenup, named for Kentucky Governor Christopher Greenup from Virginia, who was also a veteran of the Revolutionary War and a slave owner.
(Joseph Gerth. “Do you live in a Kentucky county named after someone who enslaved Black people?” Louisville Courier Journal. February 04, 2022.)
The county seat was incorporated as Greenupsburg in 1818; the name was changed to Greenup in 1872. The county population was 316 [heads of households] in the 1810 U.S. Federal Census, and it grew to 8,325 by 1860, excluding slaves.
Below are the numbers for
the slave owners, slaves, free Blacks, and free Mulattoes for
1850-1870.
1850 Slave Schedule
135 slave owners
443 Black slaves
163 Mulatto slaves
44 free Blacks
0 free Mulattoes
1860 Slave Schedule
89 slave owners
248 Black slaves
114 Mulatto slaves
34 free Blacks
13 free Mulattoes
317 Blacks
144 Mulattoes
About 2 U.S. Colored soldiers listed Greenup County, KY, as their birth location.
(James A. Allen. “Greenup County (KY) Slaves, Free Blacks, and Free Mulattoes, 1850-1870,” Notable Kentucky African Americans Database. https://nkaa.uky.edu/nkaa/items/show/2357.)
(“History of Greenup County, Kentucky,” Notable Kentucky African Americans Database. https://nkaa.uky.edu/nkaa/items/show/300002226.)
Secession And Kentucky
Thus, when one southern state after another seceded between December 1860 and May 1861, Kentucky was torn between loyalty to her sister slave states and its national Union. One month after the opening shots at Fort Sumter in April 1861, Gov. Beriah Magoffin issued a formal proclamation of neutrality and advised Kentuckians to remain at home and away from the fight.
Magoffin did not believe slavery was a “moral, social, or political evil,” but he opposed immediate secession believing the sectional differences could be worked out through mediation and fearing an invasion of Kentucky if the state seceded.
Kentucky Unionists largely supported Bell and Douglas in the 1860 election, but favored neutrality because they disapproved of both southern secession and northern coercion of southern states. Confederate sympathizers backed neutrality because they feared that if Kentucky chose a side, she would choose the Union.
Army recruiters from both sides entered Kentucky to enlist volunteers, and each army amassed troops along the state’s borders. Within Kentucky, the rival factions organized militias — Confederate sympathizers called themselves the State Guards, while Unionists became the Home Guards.
Lincoln, meanwhile, governed Kentucky with a light hand since he worried that any demonstration of force would prompt her secession. Just a month after Magoffin proclaimed neutrality, Kentuckians delivered important political victories to the Unionists, when those candidates won nine out 10 of the state’s congressional seats. Later, on August 5, Unionists also won control of the state legislature.
In response to the Unionists’ growing political power, the state’s Southern sympathizers formed a rival Confederate government. On November 18, 200 delegates passed an Ordinance of Secession and established Confederate Kentucky; the following December it was admitted to the Confederacy as a 13th state. The state capital was at Bowling Green, and George W. Johnson — who only supported Kentucky’s secession because he hoped the new balance of power would end the war — became governor. Governor Magoffin eventually resigned and cast his lot with Confederate Kentucky, as did John C. Breckinridge.
(Garry Adelman. “A House Divided: Civil War Kentucky.” American Battlefield Trust. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/house-divided-civil-war-kentucky. April 16, 2010.)
Still, about 100,000 Kentuckians served in the Union Army. After April 1864, when the Union Army began recruiting African American soldiers in Kentucky, almost 24,000 joined to fight for their freedom. For the Confederacy, between 25,000 and 40,000 Kentuckians answered the call of duty.
(Garry Adelman. “A House Divided: Civil War Kentucky.” American Battlefield Trust. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/house-divided-civil-war-kentucky. April 16, 2010.)
Greenup Slave Revolt
The Greenup Slave Revolt that occurred near Portsmouth would inspire Boston’s leading abolitionist David Walker, who recounted it in his electrifying anti-slavery pamphlet the Appeal. The significance of the revolt as a historical record is vitally important to local and state history, but also to accurately chronicling the significant national movement to Black freedom and the eventual end of slavery.
Here is a brief account of the revolt:
A slave driver (a person hired to force slaves to work) named Gordon and three helpers had purchased 60 slaves in August 1829. They were transporting them to slave markets in Mississippi. Early in the morning on the road near Greenup, Kentucky the male slaves managed to free themselves. The three helpers attempted to resist but each was killed with a club. The slaves held Gordon and attempted to shoot him in the head. The bullets only grazed him but the slaves then beat Gordon with a club, leaving him for dead. The slaves pillaged the wagon that they had been traveling with and 16 slaves escaped into the woods.
Gordon had not been killed and, helped by a female slave, mounted a horse and fled. One of the freed slaves chased him on horseback with a loaded pistol. Gordon was able to get to a nearby plantation and ask for help. When the slave that had been chasing Gordon saw him arrive at the plantation he returned to the site of the revolt.
The community was alerted and eventually about 40 of the slaves were recaptured. Eight men and one woman were tried for murdering Gordon’s three helpers, but only four were hanged. When a crowd gathered in Greenup to see them hanged, the slaves shouted that they were completely justified in killing men who were depriving them of their freedom. Julius Bingham of the Western Times reported that they told the crowd “they had done no more than their judges and executioners would have done under similar circumstances; and that too, with solemn appeal to the Judge of heaven and earth, for the integrity of their motives, and the justice of their cause.”
On the cart as they were about to be hanged, one of the four exclaimed to the crowd: “’Death! Death, any time, in preference to slavery!’”
(“know your black history: slave revolts, part 3 – 'death, any time, in preference to slavery!' – slave revolts by land.” The Establishment. https://afropunk.com/2015/11/know-your-black-history-slave-revolts-part-3-death-any-time-in-preference-to-slavery-slave-revolts-by-land//. November 3, 2015.)
David Walker was so inspired by the Greenup Revolt that he recounted it in his anti-slavery pamphlet the Appeal. Walker unlike better known abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass, advocated slaves rise up violently against slaveholders when they had an opportunity to free themselves. Thus, Appeal was arguably the most radical of all anti-slavery documents, and it caused a great stir when it was published in September of 1829 with its call for slaves to revolt against their masters.
Historical Note:
David Walker's own words. Appeal, Article II.
Our Wretchedness in Consequence Of Ignorance”
“Affray And Murder”
"Portsmouth, (Ohio) Aug." 22, 1829.
"A most shocking outrage was committed in Kentucky, about eight miles from this place, on 14th inst. A negro driver, by the name of Gordon, who had purchased in Mayland about sixty negroes, was taking them, assisted by an associate named Allen, and the wagoner who conveyed the baggage, to the Mississippi. The men were hand-cuffed and chained together, in the
usual manner for driving those poor wretches, while the women and children were suffered to proceed without incumbrance. It appears that, by means of a file the negroes, unobserved, had succeeded in separating the iron which bound their hands, in such a way as to be able to throw them off at any moment. About 8 o'clock in the morning, while proceeding on the state road leading from Greenup to Vanceburg, two of them dropped their shackles and commenced a fight, when the wagoner (Petit) rushed in with his whip to compel them to desist. At this moment, every negro was found to be perfectly at liberty; and one of them seizing a club, gave Petit a violent blow on the head, and laid him dead at his feet; and Allen, who came to his assistance, met a similar fate, from the contents of a pistol fired by another of the gang. Gordon was then attacked, seized and held by one of the negroes, whilst another fired twice at him with a pistol, the ball of which each time grazed his head, but not proving effectual, he was beaten with clubs, and left for dead. They then commenced pillaging the wagon, and with an axe split open the trunk of Gordon, and rifled it of the money, about $2,400. Sixteen of the negroes then took to the woods; Gordon, in the mean time, not being materially injured, was enabled, by the assistance of one of the women, to mount his horse and flee; pursued, however, by one of the gang on another horse, with a drawn pistol; fortunately he escaped with his life barely, arriving at a plantation, as the negro came in sight; who then turned about and retreated."
"The neighbourhood was immediately rallied, and a hot pursuit given--which, we understand, has resulted in the capture of the whole gang and the recovery of the greatest part of the money. Seven of the negro men and one woman, it is said were engaged in the murders, and will be brought to trial at the next cours in Greenupsburg."
Here my brethren, I want you to notice particularly in the above article, the ignorant and deceitful actions of this coloured woman. I beg you to view it candidly, as for ETERNITY!!!! Here a notorious wretch, with two other confederates had SIXTY of them in a gang, driving them like brutes--the men all in chains and hand-cuffs, and by the help of God they got their chains and hand-cuffs thrown off, and caught two of the wretches and put them to death, and beat the other until they thought he was dead, and left him for dead; however, he deceived them, and rising from the ground, this servile woman helped him upon his horse, and he made his escape. Brethren, what do you think of this? Was it the natural fine feelings of this woman, to save such a wretch alive? I know that the blacks, take them half enlightened and ignorant, are more humane and merciful than the most enlightened and refined European that can be found in all the earth. Let no one say that I assert this because I am prejudiced on the side of my colour, and against the whites or Europeans. For what I write, I do it candidly, for my God and the good of both parties: Natural observations have taught me these things; there is a solemn awe in the hearts of the blacks, as it respects murdering men:*
* Which is the reason the whites take the advantage of us.
whereas the whites, (though they are great cowards) where they have the advantage, or think that there are any prospects of getting it, they murder all before them, in order to subject men to wretchedness and degradation under them. This is the natural result of pride and avarice. But I declare, the actions of this black woman are really insupportable. For my own part, I cannot think it was any thing but servile deceit, combined with the most gross ignorance: for we must remember that humanity, kindness and the fear of the Lord, does not consist in protecting devils. Here is a set of wretches, who had SIXTY of them in a gang, driving
them around the country like brutes, to dig up gold and silver for them, (which they will get enough of yet.) Should the lives of such creatures be spared? Are God and Mammon in league? What has the Lord to do with a gang of desperate wretches, who go sneaking about the country like robbers--light upon his people wherever they can get a chance, binding them with chains and hand-cuffs, beat and murder them as they would rattle-snakes? Are they not the Lord's enemies? Ought they not to be destroyed? Any person who will save such wretches from destruction, is fighting against the Lord, and will receive his just recompense. The black men acted like blockheads. Why did they not make sure of the wretch? He would have made sure of them, if he could. It is just the way with black men--eight white men can frighten fifty of them; whereas, if you can only get courage into the blacks, I do declare it, that one good black man can put to death six white men; and I give it as a fact, let twelve black men get well armed for battle, and they will kill and put to flight fifty whites.--The reason is, the blacks, once you get them started, they glory in death. The whites have had us under them for more than three centuries, murdering, and treating us like brutes; and, as Mr. Jefferson wisely said, they have never found us out--they do not know, indeed, that there is an unconquerable disposition in the breasts of the blacks, which, when it is fully awakened and put in motion, will be subdued, only with the destruction of the animal existence. Get the blacks started, and if you do not have a gang of tigers and lions to deal with, I am a deceiver of the blacks and of the whites. How sixty of them could let that wretch escape unkilled, I cannot conceive--they will have to suffer as much for the two whom, they secured, as if they had put one hundred to death: if you commence, make sure work--do not trifle, for they will not trifle with you--they want us for their slaves, and think nothing
of murdering us in order to subject us to that wretched condition--therefore, if there is an attempt made by us, kill or be killed. Now, I ask you, had you not rather be killed than to be a slave to a tyrant, who takes the life of your mother, wife, and dear little children? Look upon your mother, wife and children, and answer God Almighty; and believe this, that it is no more harm for you to kill a man, who is trying to kill you, than it is for you to take a drink of water when thirsty; in fact, the man who will stand still and let another murder him, is worse than an infidel, and, if he has common sense, ought not to be pitied. The actions of this deceitful and ignorant coloured woman, in saving the life of a desperate wretch, whose avaricious and cruel object was to drive her, and her companions in miseries, through the country like cattle, to make his fortune on their carcasses, are but too much like that of thousands of our brethren in these states: if any thing is whispered by one, which has any allusion to the melioration of their dreadful condition, they run and tell tyrants, that they may be enabled to keep them the longer in wretchedness and miseries. Oh! coloured people of these United States, I ask you, in the name of that God who made us, have we, in consequence of oppression, nearly lost the spirit of man, and, in no very trifling degree, adopted that of brutes? Do you answer, no?--I ask you, then, what set of men can you point me to, in all the world, who are so abjectly employed by their oppressors, as we are by our natural enemies? How can, Oh! how can those enemies but say that we and our children are not of the HUMAN FAMILY, but were made by our Creator to be an inheritance to them and theirs for ever? How can the slaveholders but say that they can bribe the best coloured person in the country, to sell his brethren for a trifling sum of money, and take that atrocity to confirm them in their avaricious opinion, that we were made to be slaves to them and their children? How
could Mr. Jefferson but say, *
* See his Notes on Virginia, page 213.
" I advance it therefore as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind?"--It," says he, "is not against experience to suppose, that different species of the same genius, or varieties of the same species, may possess different qualifications." [Here, my brethren, listen to him.] "Will not a lover of natural history, then, one who views the gradations in all the races of animals with the eye of philosophy, excuse an effort to keep those in the department of MAN as distinct as nature has formed them?"--I hope you will try to find out the meaning of this verse--its widest sense and all its bearings: whether you do or not, remember the whites do. This very verse, brethren, having emanated from Mr. Jefferson, a much greater philosopher the world never afforded, has in truth injured us more, and has been as great a barrier to our emancipation as any thing that has ever been advanced against us. I hope you will not let it pass unnoticed. He goes on further, and says: "This unfortunate difference of colour, and perhaps of faculty, is a powerful obstacle to the emancipation of these people. Many of their advocates, while they wish to vindicate the liberty of human nature are anxious also to preserve its dignity and beauty. Some of these, embarrassed by the question, 'What further is to be done with them?' join themselves in opposition with those who are actuated by sordid avarice only." Now I ask you candidly, my suffering brethren in time, who are candidates for the eternal worlds, how could Mr. Jefferson but have given the world these remarks respecting us, when we are so submissive to them, and so much servile deceit prevail among ourselves--when we so meanly submit
to their murderous lashes, to which neither the Indians nor any other people under Heaven would submit? No, they would die to a man, before they would suffer such things from men who are no better than themselves, and perhaps not so good. Yes, how can our friends but be embarrassed, as Mr. Jefferson says, by the question, "What further is to be done with these people?" For while they are working for our emancipation, we are, by our treachery, wickedness and deceit, working against ourselves and our children--helping ours, and the enemies of God, to keep us and our dear little children in their infernal chains of slavery!!! Indeed, our friends cannot but relapse and join themselves "with those who are actuated by sordid avarice only!!!!" For my own part, I am glad Mr. Jefferson has advanced his positions for your sake; for you will either have to contradict or confirm him by your own actions, and not by what our friends have said or done for us; for those things are other men's labours, and do not satisfy the Americans, who are waiting for us to prove to them ourselves, that we are MEN, before they will be willing to admit the fact; for I pledge you my sacred word of honour, that Mr. Jefferson's remarks respecting us, have sunk deep into the hearts of millions of the whites, and never will be removed this side of eternity.--For how can they, when we are confirming him every day, by our groveling submissions and treachery? I aver, that when I look over these United States of America, and the world, and see the ignorant deceptions and consequent wretchedness of my brethren, I am brought oftimes solemnly to a stand, and in the midst of my reflections I exclaim to my God, "Lord didst thou make us to be slaves to our brethren, the whites?" But when I reflect that God is just, and that millions of my wretched brethren would meet death with glory--yea, more, would plunge into the very mouths of cannons and be torn into particles as minute as the
atoms which compose the elements of the earth, in preference to a mean submission to the lash of tyrants, I am with streaming eyes, compelled to shrink back into nothingness before my Maker, and exclaim again, thy will be done, O Lord God Almighty
Historical Note 2:
The following article by Andrew Lee Feight, Ph.D. titled “The Greenup slave revolt and David Walker’s appeal to the colored citizens of the United States of America” was posted on August 30, 2020 by the Portsmouth Daily Times:
“Julius A. Bingham, 'the sole proprietor, editor and printer' of the Western Times of Portsmouth, Ohio, became the first to report the news of the Greenup Revolt. Located a short distance down river from the scene of the revolt and executions, Portsmouth was a booming commercial and industrial hub, having been recently chosen as the southern terminus of the Ohio-Erie Canal. Portsmouth was a river town where runaways could hop a ride on the Underground Railroad, if they could, first, make it across the river, and, second, if they could find one of the few 'friends of the oppressed' who made their home in Ohio’s Scioto county.
As reported in the Portsmouth Western Times, and printed verbatim in David Walker’s Appeal, 'A most shocking outrage was committed in Kentucky, about eight miles from this place, on 14th inst. [August 14, 1829] A negro driver, by the name of Gordon, who had purchased in Maryland about sixty negroes, was taking them, assisted by an associate named [Gabriel] Allen [of Paris, Kentucky], and the wagoner who conveyed the baggage, to the Mississippi. The men were hand-cuffed and chained together, in the usual manner for driving those poor wretches, while the women and children were suffered to proceed without incumbrance. It appears that, by means of a file the negroes, unobserved, had succeeded in separating the iron which bound their hands, in such a way as to be able to throw them off at any moment.
“About 8 o’clock in the morning, while proceeding on the state road leading from Greenup to Vanceburg, [modern-day US Route 23] two of them dropped their shackles and commenced a fight, when the wagoner (Petit) rushed in with his whip to compel them to desist. At this moment, every negro was found to be perfectly at liberty; and one of them seizing a club, gave Petit a violent blow on the head, and laid him dead at his feet; and Allen, who came to his assistance, met a similar fate, from the contents of a pistol fired by another of the gang.
“Gordon was then attacked, seized and held by one of the negroes, whilst another fired twice at him with a pistol, the ball of which each time grazed his head, but not proving effectual, he was beaten with clubs, and left for dead.
“They then commenced pillaging the wagon, and with an axe split open the trunk of Gordon, and rifled it of the money, about $2,400. Sixteen of the negroes then took to the woods; Gordon, in the mean time, not being materially injured, was enabled, by the assistance of one of the women, to mount his horse and flee; pursued, however, by one of the gang on another horse, with a drawn pistol; fortunately he escaped with his life barely, arriving at a plantation, as the negro came in sight; who then turned about and retreated.”
“Did any of these brave men and women escape to freedom? Apparently not. Bingham concluded his account, explaining, 'the neighbourhood was immediately rallied, and a hot pursuit given – which, we understand, has resulted in the capture of the whole gang and the recovery of the greatest part of the money. Seven of the negro men and one woman, it is said were engaged in the murders, and will be brought to trial at the next court in Greenupsburg.'
“They started out as the Greenup Eight, but ultimately it was only four men who would hang that late November afternoon. The sentences of the remaining four have been lost to time. They and the forty-some others who were never charged in the 'affray,' it would seem safe to assume, were eventually sold at the auction block or, in private, either here or further down river. Perhaps one of those unfortunate souls was sold as far south as the New Orleans market, where a kind Christian soul, like Uncle Tom, might end up in the hands of a murderous master, one who might even teach a lesson in sadism to Simon Legree. The depths of depravity generated within the American slave system are well documented thanks to the writings of Stowe and other activists who campaigned to awaken the conscience of their fellow Americans.
“Unfortunately, no court records from the trial are known to exist, but thanks again to the reportage found in Bingham’s Western Times, we have a memorable account of the proceedings when these four men were put to their deaths.
“Reportedly, when the fateful hour arrived and a large crowd had gathered in Greenup, all four of the condemned 'maintained to the last, the utmost firmness and resignation to their fate. They severally addressed the assembled multitude, in which they attempted to justify the deed they had committed, on the principle implanted in the breast of every man by nature, to fight for freedom, and slay the tyrant who dares to deprive them of it. This only they had done, and having failed to accomplish the sole object for which they slew their merciless oppressors, traffickers in human flesh, it remained for them to pay the forfeit of that failure with their lives.'
“'They were willing to do so,' reported Bingham. These heroic men, bound and standing before a crowd of patriotic white Americans, asserted that 'they had done no more than their judges and executioners would have done under similar circumstances; and that too, with a solemn appeal to the Judge of heaven and earth, for the integrity of their motives, and the justice of their cause.'
(Andrew Lee Feight, Ph.D. “The Greenup slave revolt and David Walker’s appeal to the colored citizens of the United States of America.” Portsmouth Daily Times. August 30, 2020.)
David Walker
David Walker (1796?-1830) was a free black originally from the South. He was parented by a slave father and a freedwoman. He was born, and raised in Wilmington, North Carolina. In accordance with existing laws, since his mother was a free black, David Walker was also free. This freedom, however, did not shield him from witnessing firsthand the degradations and injustices of slavery.
He witnessed much misery in his youth, including one disturbing episode of a son who was forced to whip his mother until she died. Walker traveled throughout the country, eventually settling in Boston. But even in that free northern city, with its prevalent discrimination, life was less than ideal for its black residents. Still, Walker apparently fared well, setting up a used clothing store during the 1820s.
Although he left there as an adult to travel in various states. He did not leave out of boredom or simple restlessness, but because of disgust.
“If I remain in this bloody land, I will not live long … I cannot remain where I must hear slaves’ chains continually and where I must encounter the insults of their hypocritical enslavers.”
(David Walker, 1785-1830. 2020. Univ. North Carolina – Education. 2020. https://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/walker/bio.html.)
Eventually, he ended up in Boston. There, he settled down, married, and had two children. By the time he arrived there, he was a knowledgeable abolitionist.
In Boston, Walker began to associate with prominent black activists. He joined institutions that denounced slavery in the South and discrimination in the North. He became involved with the nation's first African American newspaper, the Freedom's Journal out of New York City, to which he frequently contributed. By the end of 1828, he had become Boston's leading spokesman against slavery.
(“David Walker (abolitionist).” New World Encyclopedia. https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/David_Walker_(abolitionist).)
In September 1829 when Walker published his Appeal, to reach his primary audience – the enslaved men and women of the South – Walker relied on sailors and ship's officers sympathetic to the cause who could transfer the pamphlet to southern ports. Walker even employed his used clothing business which, being located close to the waterfront, served sailors who bought clothing for upcoming voyages. He sewed copies of his pamphlet into the lining of sailors' clothing. Once the pamphlets reached the South, they could be distributed throughout the region. Walker also sought the aid of of various contacts in the South who were also sympathetic to the cause.
(“David Walker (abolitionist).” New World Encyclopedia. https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/David_Walker_(abolitionist).)
In Appeal, Walker wrote, ". . .they want us for their slaves, and think nothing of murdering us. . . therefore, if there is an attempt made by us, kill or be killed. . . and believe this, that it is no more harm for you to kill a man who is trying to kill you, than it is for you to take a drink of water when thirsty." Even the outspoken William Lloyd Garrison objected to Walker's approach in an editorial about the Appeal.
Walker not only laid out a justification for, and a call for, a slave uprising, but also paved the way for future thinker-activists who explored the nature of racial and colonial oppression from what came to be called a psycho-historical standpoint. Such persons included W.E.B. Du Bois and Frantz Fanon.
Of course, one goal of the
Appeal was to instill
pride in its black readers and give hope that change would someday
come. It spoke out against colonization, a popular movement that
sought to move free blacks to a colony in Africa. America, Walker
believed, belonged to all who helped build it. He went even further,
stating, "America is more our country than it is the whites –
we have enriched it with our blood and tears." He then asked,
"will they drive us from our property and homes, which we have
earned with our blood?"
Copies of the Appeal were
discovered in Savannah, Georgia, within weeks of its publication.
Within several months copies were found from Virginia to Louisiana.
Instantly, southern officials and other whites responded to it with
alarm. As the Appeal’s circulation
in the South began, a bounty was placed on Walker’s head – $3,000
for simply killing him and $10,000 for capturing him alive, then
returning him to the South for torture and execution.
Friends concerned about his safety implored Walker to flee to Canada. Walker responded that he would stand his ground. "Somebody must die in this cause," he added. "I may be doomed to the stake and the fire, or to the scaffold tree, but it is not in me to falter if I can promote the work of emancipation." A devout Christian, he believed that abolition was a "glorious and heavenly cause."
(“David Walker's Appeal.” PBS. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2931.html.)
And, the money on Walker’s head was only one part of the South’s enraged response. To reduce the possibility of slave rebellion, new anti-black laws were passed throughout the region while old ones were toughened. Georgia, as an example, passed legislation that made the circulation of antislavery manifestos punishable by death.
During the same period, in other states from Virginia to Louisiana, laws against teaching slaves to read and write were made harsher, prohibitions against slaves gathering in groups without white oversight were passed, and it was made illegal for freedmen and freedwomen to interact with slaves. Even the Columbian Centinel, a Boston publication, editorialized that these measures were justified to guarantee "the immediate safety of the whites."
(Walker's Appeal, in Four Articles; Together with a Preamble, to the Coloured Citizens of the World, but in Particular, and Very Expressly, to Those of the United States of America. Written in Boston, State of Massachusetts. September 28, 1829.)
David Walker published a third edition of his Appeal in June of 1830. Two months later he was found dead in his home. Although there was no evidence supporting the allegation, many believed that he had been poisoned. Later scholarship suggests he died of tuberculosis, the same disease that killed his daughter.
“Oh! my coloured brethren . . . when shall we arise from this death-like apathy?–And be men!!”
– David Walker, Appeal
Reverberations of Appeal To This Day
Many see great relevance in Walker's work to our era regarding US racism, its history, white supremacy, and insight into, and rage against, the persistence of these things. As David Walker understood, a battle against this level of racism cannot be won by endlessly waiting for the system to self-correct. Rather, he tells his readers, it requires insurrectionists to appear on the scene like “a gang of lions and tigers” whose threatening energy forces the dominant society to realize this is a challenge it can’t merely “deal with,” but is rather one to which it must acquiesce.
(Robert Bohm. “David Walker’s Appeal.” Real Progressives. https://realprogressives.org/david-walkers-appeal//. July 15, 2020.)
Despite this legacy, Walker remains one of the least known of the early 19th century’s black liberationists. This is in spite of the fact that it reasonably can be argued that no student can grasp the Declaration of Independence’s (US 1776) status as a historical document without also reading Walker’s Appeal, which critiques both Thomas Jefferson’s vision of race and the Declaration’s role in a racialized America as a white privilege document – one, however, which Walker believed was capable of being overturned by blacks if they employed the Declaration’s own words to assault US racism. Which is exactly what Walker did.
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