More On Black Slaves In Kentucky.
Slaves in Kentucky faced a longer road to freedom
Kentucky's blacks took a longer road to freedom than those in almost any slave state, facing hostility from the same Union forces that were liberating slaves farther South.
And for that, they could partly blame the Great Emancipator himself, according to the keynote speaker at a two-day conference at the University of Louisville on Kentucky and the Civil War.
President Abraham Lincoln worked hard to keep Kentucky in the Union — appeasing the demands of slaveholders that they keep their slaves — because he recognized the strategic importance of the border state, according to Ira Berlin, a University of Maryland history professor and author of multiple books on American slavery.
Lincoln feared that if Kentucky seceded, so would other border states, such as Maryland and Missouri. That would have left Washington, D.C., vulnerable. The Union might as well "consent to separation at once," Lincoln wrote to a friend, Berlin said.
"Lincoln appreciated the importance of Kentucky's loyalty," Berlin said. "He made sure that he had it. Perhaps as a result, he kept Missouri and Maryland as well. He kept his capital. … He did the job."
But "in the long-term, there were large costs" to Lincoln's appeasement of Kentucky slaveholders — to the point of overruling Union officers who tried to make the war one of emancipation from the outset. "Nobody bore the burden of those costs more than Kentucky slaves," Berlin said.
That appeasement emboldened slaveholders' defense of slavery even after Lincoln increasingly worked toward emancipation, he said.
While Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in states "in rebellion," the Union states of Kentucky and Delaware held on to legal slavery longer than any other state — until the December 1865 ratification of the 13th Amendment making it illegal, Berlin said.
The conference, "Pathways to Freedom," which concluded Friday at the Chao Auditorium at U of L's Belknap Campus, came one month before the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War.
It's the third in a series of conferences about Kentucky before and during the Civil War, according to Peter Morrin, executive-in-residence in the Department of Fine Arts at U of L. The university and its Arts and Culture Partnership — comprised of 17 local organizations — are jointly organizing the conferences.
Kentucky had about 225,000 slaves at the start of the war, generally held in small numbers rather than the large holdings in the plantation culture farther South, Berlin said.
Early in the Civil War, slaves jumped at the chance to seek freedom behind Union lines — but were often rebuffed, according to another conference speaker, history professor Marion Lucas of Western Kentucky University.
Hundreds of refugees died from disease and exposure, Lucas said.
A Union commander of Camp Nelson in Jessamine County, Gen. Speed Fry, ordered a shantytown destroyed, driving poorly clothed women and children "into the wintry blast," Lucas said. More than 100 died, Lucas said.
Even later in the war — when Union officers gave African Americans greater protection — white mobs terrorized black Union Army recruits and veterans, the speakers said. Whites in Kentucky also re-enslaved blacks legally entitled to freedom, the speakers said, such as the wives and children of Union recruits and refugees from farther South who had been liberated under the Emancipation Proclamation.
Many senior Union officers sought at first to carry out Lincoln's political calculations about maintaining the loyalty of Kentucky slaveholders.
But as slaves descended on Union lines, they forced junior officers into day-to-day decisions about whether to protect them.
Some upheld Lincoln's policy, but others accepted the refugees — appalled by their stories of atrocities under slavery and by the demands of slaveholders for the return of slaves so they could be whipped or shot.
Many Union officers from the North "saw slavery for the first time" when they entered Kentucky, and "they did not like what they saw," Lucas said.
Late in the war, a Michigan officer halted the sale of an emancipated slave in Louisville, Berlin said. The "heroic" Gen. John Palmer took charge of Union troops in Kentucky and defended African Americans through tactics ranging from military protection to ponderous legal challenges.
After the military occupation of Kentucky ended in October 1865, the state was well on its way to erecting Jim Crow laws severely restricting African Americans' rights.
Still, African Americans who resisted their bondage "knew for sure that freedom was better than slavery," Lucas said.
Kentucky's blacks took a longer road to freedom than those in almost any slave state, facing hostility from the same Union forces that were liberating slaves farther South.
And for that, they could partly blame the Great Emancipator himself, according to the keynote speaker at a two-day conference at the University of Louisville on Kentucky and the Civil War.
President Abraham Lincoln worked hard to keep Kentucky in the Union — appeasing the demands of slaveholders that they keep their slaves — because he recognized the strategic importance of the border state, according to Ira Berlin, a University of Maryland history professor and author of multiple books on American slavery.
Lincoln feared that if Kentucky seceded, so would other border states, such as Maryland and Missouri. That would have left Washington, D.C., vulnerable. The Union might as well "consent to separation at once," Lincoln wrote to a friend, Berlin said.
"Lincoln appreciated the importance of Kentucky's loyalty," Berlin said. "He made sure that he had it. Perhaps as a result, he kept Missouri and Maryland as well. He kept his capital. … He did the job."
But "in the long-term, there were large costs" to Lincoln's appeasement of Kentucky slaveholders — to the point of overruling Union officers who tried to make the war one of emancipation from the outset. "Nobody bore the burden of those costs more than Kentucky slaves," Berlin said.
That appeasement emboldened slaveholders' defense of slavery even after Lincoln increasingly worked toward emancipation, he said.
While Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in states "in rebellion," the Union states of Kentucky and Delaware held on to legal slavery longer than any other state — until the December 1865 ratification of the 13th Amendment making it illegal, Berlin said.
The conference, "Pathways to Freedom," which concluded Friday at the Chao Auditorium at U of L's Belknap Campus, came one month before the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War.
It's the third in a series of conferences about Kentucky before and during the Civil War, according to Peter Morrin, executive-in-residence in the Department of Fine Arts at U of L. The university and its Arts and Culture Partnership — comprised of 17 local organizations — are jointly organizing the conferences.
Kentucky had about 225,000 slaves at the start of the war, generally held in small numbers rather than the large holdings in the plantation culture farther South, Berlin said.
Early in the Civil War, slaves jumped at the chance to seek freedom behind Union lines — but were often rebuffed, according to another conference speaker, history professor Marion Lucas of Western Kentucky University.
Hundreds of refugees died from disease and exposure, Lucas said.
A Union commander of Camp Nelson in Jessamine County, Gen. Speed Fry, ordered a shantytown destroyed, driving poorly clothed women and children "into the wintry blast," Lucas said. More than 100 died, Lucas said.
Even later in the war — when Union officers gave African Americans greater protection — white mobs terrorized black Union Army recruits and veterans, the speakers said. Whites in Kentucky also re-enslaved blacks legally entitled to freedom, the speakers said, such as the wives and children of Union recruits and refugees from farther South who had been liberated under the Emancipation Proclamation.
Many senior Union officers sought at first to carry out Lincoln's political calculations about maintaining the loyalty of Kentucky slaveholders.
But as slaves descended on Union lines, they forced junior officers into day-to-day decisions about whether to protect them.
Some upheld Lincoln's policy, but others accepted the refugees — appalled by their stories of atrocities under slavery and by the demands of slaveholders for the return of slaves so they could be whipped or shot.
Many Union officers from the North "saw slavery for the first time" when they entered Kentucky, and "they did not like what they saw," Lucas said.
Late in the war, a Michigan officer halted the sale of an emancipated slave in Louisville, Berlin said. The "heroic" Gen. John Palmer took charge of Union troops in Kentucky and defended African Americans through tactics ranging from military protection to ponderous legal challenges.
After the military occupation of Kentucky ended in October 1865, the state was well on its way to erecting Jim Crow laws severely restricting African Americans' rights.
Still, African Americans who resisted their bondage "knew for sure that freedom was better than slavery," Lucas said.
Labels: Keeping them honest, Race, Racism
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 7:57 AM
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