Bracken County, Kentucky

Bracken County Slavery

Map of Primary Underground RR Routes

The Lynching of George Duncan in 1871, story here, and a second story here.


1816, John King wants his enslaved Abram back The Union, a Washington, Ky newspaper, June 21, 1816	How can a man be enslaved five months after the Emancipation Proclamation? from the Frankfort Tri-Weekly Commonwealth, August 17, 1863

Stampede

The Boone County Library has a web site detailing known escapes by enslaved persons from Northern Kentucky. The Pendleton-Harrison only list is here.
The Bracken Circuit Court deals with men helping slaves escape, in 1853, here.	Ed Mofford, enslaved, escapes from Brooksville, here.	In 1860, deputies trace escaped Germantown slaves to Morrow County, Ohio. The attempt to bring them back does not go well, more here.
A letter writer, “A Tourist,” has these observations about Bracken/Mason slavery, 1849.	Lucy Kennon, age 125.	In 1840, M. R. Hull writes to a friend on the status of religion and slavery in Bracken County, here.
“All the particulars we have received of the late difficulties with the Negroes in Kentucky.”
Thirty-one enslaved people from Augusta and Dover go for Canada, here.	Large group of escaping enslaved people trapped near Bracken County line. Local counties go nuts, here. Another version here. Escaped slaves caught, here.
The 1853 Bracken Circuit Court deals with slavery issues. Same event, different paper, here (pdf).	“Eighteen citizens in Mason and Bracken counties, Kentucky, were expelled on account of Anti-Slavery opinions, and arrived in Cincinnati on Monday.” Sacramento Daily Union, February 22, 1860
“THE KENTUCKY SLAVE CASE. - The Maysville Eagle has the following notice of the slave trial progressing in Bracken county , Kentucky: ‘The grand jury found a true bill against seven of the slaves in Bracken county, for the late outrage committed there. One bill for conspiracy, insurrection and rebellion, and one for shooting with intent to kill. Upon the first, a jury was obtained on Tuesday, and the trial is now progressing. Two negroes occupied nearly five hours in testifying; since which, half a dozen white men have testified in relation to the resistance and firing by the company of negroes, upon the whites who attempted to take them up as runaway slaves.’” The North Star, September 22, 1848
Joseph Harris loses four enslaved people to the Underground Railroad.
Free woman from Felicity, Ohio, visits her enslaved children in Bracken County, and is incarcerated.
“Within the past few days a number of slaves, from this State, have escaped into Ohio, and are now on their way to Canada, via the underground railroad. Four of the slaves belonged to Harvey Williamson, of Union County; five belonged to Joseph Harris, of Bracken county, and two owned in Boone county. They came to Cincinnati, by taking passage on a float down the Licking river, and thence to a point half a mile below Sedamsville, where, by the aid of friends, they got off to Canada.” From the Louisville Daily Courier, April 20, 1855

	National Republican and Ohio Political Register, August 29, 1823
			Steubenville Weekly Herald, January 5, 1872

	Daily Cincinnati Republican and Commercial Register, May 3, 1834		Daily Cincinnati Republican and Commercial Register, March 14, 1834
			Daily Cincinnati Republican and Commercial Register, March 20, 1835
			Abolitionist John Fee's father, also John Fee, kept enslaved people. We assume “John Free” in the lower ad is a typo.

An account from a man attending a Rev. John Fee meeting.

The Rev. Fee has thoughts on Methodist slave traders.

Somewhere in our roaming we picked up this stack of fliers, all of which pertain to the lives of slaves and roles of slavery in early Bracken and Mason Counties. Some of these are credited to the Bracken County Tourism Office, and many aren't, but we assume they published all of them. We've learned that Ms. Caroline Miller is the author of most of them. All we have are posted here; the ones that are Mason-specific we've also cross posted over on the Mason County pages. Enjoy.

Juliet Miles, Fugitive Slave Mother	Augusta College, 1822-1849	Battle of Augusta, Sept. 27, 1862	Sarah Thomas, 1832	Willow Grove Slave Escape

"Doctor" Perkins	Arnold Gragston	Slave Escape, Aug. 8, 1848	Peter Stokes, Fugitive	The Escape of Ed Mofford

Rev. Elisha Green	Blacks Play an Important Role in Bracken	Aunt Ann Bass	Private, Formal Education in Bracken	John Fairfield

Red Oak Church	The Isaac Hensley Kidnapping	Slave Gives Up Freedom	Arthur Thome	Addressed to Theophilus

Weimer and Gibbons, Slave Catchers	Last Will of Thurston Thomas	John W. Anderson, Slave Trader	Phillips Folly	Violence of Slave Hunters

Slavery Days in Mason County	Eliza Jane Johnson	Abolition Outrage	James Sroufe	Slave Enticers

Colporteur William Haines	Bierbower House	Col Charles Young	The Will of James Savage	Negro Traders

“The trial of Wm. T. Marshall for killing a Negro named Dudley Hutcheson, at Augusta, in October last, has been in progress in the Criminal Court in Brooksville, Bracken county, for several days past. Charles Duncan, Commonwealth's Attorney, and Judge B. G. Wells are prosecuting the case, and the prisoner is defended by Hon. Joseph Doniphan, Hon. T. F. Marshall, Hon. Wm. E. Arthur, and Hon. W. H. Wadsworth. The general impression at Brooksville, when our informant left, was that Marshall would be acquitted.” - from the Covington Journal, November 27, 1869.

Details.

Grand jury finds no bill on lynchers in Bracken County, story here.

If you have an interest in Slavery and the Underground Railroad in the Bracken County area, you absolutely want to find a book called Beyond the River, by Ann Hagedorn. It's the story of Ripley, Ohio's John Rankin, and has detailed information about slavery days in Bracken and Mason Counties.