| 1751 |
Christopher Gist and Dr. Thomas Walker accompanied by an African servant, begin the
first exploration beyond the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia's. This newly explored
territory will come to be known as Kentucky.
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| 1760 |
An enslaved man guides Daniel Boone across the Blue Ridge Mountains.
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1775 |
Daniel Boone leads a group of settlers, including African laborers, into Kentucky.
Presbyterians establish their first church at McAfee Station in what is now Mercer
County.
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1776 |
Fincastle County is officially formed as the Western frontier of Virginia. Fincastle County
will later become the State of Kentucky.
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| 1781 |
The "Travelling Church" departs for the Kentucky frontier
Baptists establish their first permanent church at the Severns Valley settlement
(now Elizabethtown).
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| 1782 |
An enslaved man named Monk Estill helps prevent the destruction by Native Americans
of Estill's Station near Irvine, KY. Captain James Estill, owner of the station
and of Monk,is on a hunting trip but Monk attempts to find him and warn him of an attack.
He finds him near present day Mt. Sterling but arrives just as an ambush begins.
Captain Estill is killed and Monk brings his body back to the Station. For his bravery,
the oldest son of Captain Estill frees Monk through a process of "manumission."
Monk moves to Fort Boonesboro and becomes a skilled maker of gunpowder and is the
father of the first African American child born in Kentucky.
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| 1786 |
Town of Old Washington established in, what was then, Bourbon County. |
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| 1790 |
Methodists organize in Kentucky. The first federal census counts 11,830 slaves
on the Kentucky frontier. Fayette, Woodford and surrounding counties have the
largest African American population in Kentucky. |
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1792 |
June 4
Kentucky officially enters the Union as the fifteenth state at a ceremonial meeting held
in Lexington, Kentucky. It enters as a pro-slavery state. Free blacks are allowed to vote.
Anti-slavery resolution presented to the State Legislature by Rev. David Rice and evangelical
religious leaders.
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| 1799 |
Second Kentucky Constitution adopted. Free blacks lose their right to vote. |
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1801 |
August, Great Revival held at Cane Ridge, Bourbon County, Kentucky. |
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1808
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Founding of the Kentucky Abolition Society and publication of the anti-slavery Abolition
Intelligencer and Missionary Magazine. Kentucky becomes major exporter of slaves to the South.
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1820
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Kentucky's slave population increases at a rapid rate with African Americans making
up over 40% of the population in Lexington. |
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| 1825 |
Free blacks allowed to legally marry each other, but not allowed to marry slaves. |
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| 1829 |
Kentucky Colonization Society formed. One of its key supporters is Henry Clay. |
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1830
|
Kentucky slave, Tice Davids, successfully flees slavery and escapes to Ripley, Ohio.
Based on his escape and disappearance, the term "underground railroad" is said to
have been adopted. Kentucky's enslaved population peaks at 24.7% with 165,213 slaves
and 4,917 free African Americans. Josiah Henson makes a successful escape with his
family from Owensboro, KY to Canada. |
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| 1833
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Kentucky legislature passes law prohibiting importation of African slaves into the state
for resale south. |
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| 1835
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James G. Birney, a slaveholder in Danville, frees his slaves, denounces
colonialization and organizes the Kentucky Anti-Slavery Society. |
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| 1839
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November
Liberty Party formed. The entry of the antislavery forces into politics was signaled by
the establishment of the Liberty party, which held its founding convention at Warsaw, NY in 1839 and
nomi-nated James G. Birney, a native of Kentucky and a former slaveholder, for president, and Thomas
Earle (Pa.) for vice president. These nominations were confirmed at the party's first national
convention at Albany (1 April 1840).
Liberty party conventions were subsequently held in Ohio and
other states in the Northwest. The party was composed of moderate abolitionists who did not share
William Lloyd Garrison's opposition to political action. Unlike Garrison, they professed loyalty to
the Constitution and did not advocate secession or dissolution of the Union. By virtue of holding the
balance of power, the party played an important part in the presidential election of 1844, and was
considered responsible for the defeat of Henry Clay.
In 1848 it combined with the Free Soil party
and helped to defeat the Democratic candidate, Lewis Cass. The party's chief political issue was
its stand against the annexation of Texas. Among its leaders were Gerrit Smith (NY) and Salmon P.
Chase (OH).
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| 1845
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First African Baptist Church established in Lexington, Kentucky.
Cassius Clay publishes the anti-slavery newspaper True American.
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| 1849
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Kentucky repeals the Non-Importation Act.
Bourbon County's enslaved population reaches 50% of the total in the county.
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1852
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March
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, is published in book form. Uncle Tom's Cabin
was a work originally serialized in the antislavery newspaper, the National Era (in Washington, DC. A
sentimental novel directed against the brutality and injustice of slavery, it was said to be inspired
by passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. By mid-1853 some 1,200,000 copies of the work had been
published. As a stage play it was first presented August 24, 1852.
Mrs. Stowe wrote Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin (1853) in an attempt to show
that she had relied on factual evidence to support the story of Uncle Tom's Cabin.
As a tribute to her brief stay in Kentucky, the Harriett Beecher Stowe Slavery to Freedom Museum
has been established at Old Washington, Mason County Kentucky in the former Marshall Key home.
Kentucky legend states Stowe was inspired to write Uncle Tom's Cabin while visiting Marshall
Key's daughter, her classmate, in Old Washington. While visiting the Keys family, Stowe is said to
have witnessed a slave auction in Old Washington which inspired her to write, Uncle Tom's Cabin
based on the life of Kentucky slave Josiah Henson. |
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| 1853
|
Margaret and Robert Garner are recaptured in Cincinnati, Ohio. Margaret kills one
of her daughters rather than have her return to slavery. The case receives enormous
publicity and becomes a test of the newly strengthened Fugitive Slave Law. The story
is later fictionalized in Toni Morrison's novel Beloved.
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| 1858
|
Pleasant Green Baptist Church officially recognized as an established church
established in Lexington, Kentucky.
Elisha W. Green establishes a Baptist church in Maysville, Mason County, Kentucky.
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1859
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John Gregg Fee establishes Berea College founded to provide interracial education.
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| 1862
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April
Lincoln's plan of compensated emancipation was embraced abolishing slavery in the
District of Columbia, but no such compensation was provided.
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May
General David Hunter proclaimed the emancipation of slaves in his Department (including
Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina), but Lincoln disavowed this action.
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June
Slavery was abolished in United States territories. Lincoln continued to
appeal to the loyal states to enact gradual and compensated emancipation. Aware of the public
shift toward the radical position on slavery Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
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1863
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1 January
President Lincoln signs the
Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves in states that seceded from the Union.
Kentucky never seceded, therefore its slaves were not freed under the Proclamation.
Lincoln had submitted the first draft of the proclamation to his cabinet on 22 July, 1862,
but was persuaded to withhold it because of military reverses.
On 1 December the president appealed to Congress for passage of a constitutional
amendment providing for compensated emancipation, but the border states opposed the plan. To retain
the loyalty of the border states Lincoln had resisted demands of the radical Republicans for abolition.
Military action on the part of Lincoln's generals caused President Lincoln to
rethink this strategy which led to issuance of the proclamation. With a need to influence European
opinion, Lincoln followed his Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation (22 September 1862) with his final
Proclamation (1 January 1863) declaring that all slaves in areas still in rebellion were "then,
thenceforward, and forever free."
The Proclamation actually freed no slaves; in fact, it went no further than Congress had already gone in
legislation on the subject, for it applied only to areas over which the federal government exercised
no control, specifically exempting all regions under federal military occupation.
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1865
|
The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolishes slavery and
frees slaves in border states of Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, and Maryland.
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