NOTE
In the newspapers are more biographies of formerly enslaved African Americans than has been published in books and academic publications.
Within the newspaper articles are the names of family members, slave owners, land locations, purchase/sold prices, freedom details, and much more.
Use the details found in the biographies to continue the research using public documents, census records, and other sources.
Within the U.S. Census publications are the data on the number of free persons and the enslaved in each county in the state of Kentucky.
Freedmen's Bureau Records (Family Search)
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, was a Reconstruction agency that assisted the newly freed African Americans in the south. The bureau was a government agency established on March 3, 1865, and it operated from 1865 to 1872. The agency acted as a social services agency that oversaw the relief efforts for African Americans after the U.S. Civil War. Registration is required to freely access the Freedmen Bureau Records at FamilySearch.
Image by orythys / 111 at Pixabay
- United States Freedmen's Bureau, Records of Freedmen, 1865-1872The Freedmen’s Bureau created records at the headquarters in Washington, DC, state offices, and field agents. Field office records (local) usually contain more genealogical data.
Selected Census and Government Publications
- "Second census" of Kentucky, 1800 : a privately compiled and published enumeration of tax payers appearing in the 79 manuscript volumes extant of tax lists of the 42 counties of Kentucky in existence in 1800 byCall Number: F450 .C56 1976Publication Date: 1909- 1976 [©1954
- 1850 Census: The Seventh Census of the United States byPublication Date: 1850Provided by the U.S. Census Bureau.
- Return of the whole number of persons within the several districts of the United States, according to "An act providing for the enumeration of the inhabitants of the United States". passed March the first, one thousand seven hundred and ninety. byPublication Date: 17901790 U.S. Census. Available at Hathi Trust Digital Library.
- Statistical Abstracts Series, 1870s-2010s byHistorical abstracts up to the more recent editions.
- African American Slave Owners in KentuckyOwnership may have meant the purchase of a spouse, an individual's children, or other relatives who were not emancipated.
- American Slavery, Civil RecordsInformation on records of the National Archives and Records Administration. Record groups and series, with brief descriptions and locations. It does not provide actual documents.
- Free Negro owners of slaves in the United States in 1830, together with Absentee ownership of slaves in the United States in 18301924 publication - Washington, D.C., Association for the Study of Negro Life and History
- Historical Statistics: General U.S. Statistics (libguide)University of Kentucky libguide
Research in Newspapers
Newspapers are another source for reviewing the published research on slavery in Kentucky. The snippet below is the first paragraph of the full page article by A. C. Quisenberry in 1910. [See the archives tab for a list of newspaper sources.]
Title: Slavery in Kentucky
By: A. C. Quisenberry
Pub: The Lexington Herald
Date: July 10, 1910
Pages: 1-2
African American Biographies in Newspapers
Biographies of formerly enslaved African Americans are available in African American newspapers and mainstream newspapers. The articles contain information about the person, family members, and slave owners. Below are snippets from newspaper articles. [See the archives tab at the top of this page for newspaper archive sources.]
Title: One Hundred Years Old
Pub: Plaindealer (Topeka, Kansas)
Date: March 1, 1901
Page: 4
Title: They Came from the Ranks
Date: September 15, 1889
Page: 6
Title: C. C. Martin, at 107, May Be State's Oldest
Pub: The Courier-Journal [Newspapers.com]
Date: December 19, 1954
Page: 43, section 3
Search the Online Catalog
- InfoKat Discovery This link opens in a new window
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InfoKat Discovery allows you to quickly search multiple UK library resources simultaneously, including books, journal articles, dissertations, government documents, archives and special collections, images, maps, videos, music and open access content. InfoKat Discovery does NOT include all of the journal articles available through our databases.
Selected Books and Journal Articles
- "In Pressing Need of Cash": Gender, Skill, and Family Persistence in the Domestic Slave Trade byThe Journal of African American History, Vol. 92, No. 1, Women, Slavery, and Historical Research (Winter, 2007), pp. 22-36
- African Americans on the Kentucky Frontier byThe Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, Vol. 95, No. 2 (Spring 1997), pp. 121-134
Black liberation in Kentucky : emancipation and freedom, 1862-1884 by Call Number: E185.93.K3 H68 1983ISBN: 9780813150710Publication Date: 2010, ©1983[also available in online databases]- The evangelical war against slavery and caste : the life and times of John G. Fee byCall Number: E445.K5 F444 1996ISBN: 0945636946Publication Date: 1996
Free Negro owners of slaves in the United States in 1830, together with Absentee ownership of slaves in the United States in 1830 by Publication Date: 1924Full text available online at Hathi Digital Trust Library
Fugitive slaves and the Underground Railroad in the Kentucky borderland by Call Number: E450 .H86 2002ISBN: 0786446854Publication Date: 2002
A history of Blacks in Kentucky by Call Number: E185.93.K3 L83 1992ISBN: 0916968235Publication Date: 1992- Lincoln, Slavery, and Kentucky byThe Register - Kentucky Historical Society, 2008-07-01, Vol.106 (3/4), p.571-604
More American than southern : Kentucky, slavery, and the war for an American ideology, 1828-1861 by ISBN: 9781621901181Publication Date: 2014[Ebook Central Academic Complete]- Neither Slavery nor Abolitionism: James M. Pendleton and the Problem of Christian Conservative Antislavery in 1840s Kentucky bySlavery & Abolition, 2006-12-01, Vol.27 (3), p.367-389
Slavery's Capitalism: A New History of American Economic Development by Call Number: E441 .S538 2016ISBN: 0812293096Publication Date: 2016- Slavery in Kentucky: The Development of Slavery byThe Journal of Negro history, 1918-01, Vol.3 (1/4), p.214-214
