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Slave traders
(3)One more horror story from Thomas D. Clark’s A History of Kentucky (Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1988):
On another occasion, in 1860, Nancy Lee, a slave for life, approached Reverend [William M.] Pratt in great distress because her two daughters were to be sold into the southern trade. Tony Lee, the girls’ father, successful in purchasing their freedom, had turned the papers over to them just before his death. Negro traders visited Nancy and through a ruse secured possession of the papers and destroyed them. The girls were then offered for sale at public auction on county dourt day, February 13, 1860. Pratt bid on the first girl until the price reached $1,000. Then he stepped upon the auction block and begged the bidders to withdraw, but when the bidding was resumed and when the price was raised to $1,700, the girl was knocked off to the firm of Northcutt and Marshall. The second was sold in the same way to $1,600 to a slave trader from Covington. Pratt lamented in his diary that “such scenes are shocking to our moral natures. If God’s curse does not rest on that concern (of Negro traders) then I am no prophet. Negro traders are the greatest curse to our land, and I do wish the city council would impose such a tax as to drive them from our midst.”
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Black history month, Kentucky history, Thomas D. Clark
3 Responses to “Slave traders”
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Ernie Stamper February 24th, 2009 at 10:04 am
I thought you might be interested further in this Rev. Pratt — the following quoted bio was written in 1886, with source noted:
Bio of Pratt
WILLIAM M. PRATT, D.D., now one of the oldest active ministers in Elkhorn Association, was born in Madison county. N. Y., January 13, 1817. He finished his education at what is now Madison University, taking a course of four years in the collegiate, and two years in the theological department, graduating in 1839. He was married the day after he graduated, and within two weeks started to his field of labor at Crawfordsville, Ind. Here he conducted a female school about a year, preaching as he could make opportunity. After this he spent about four years in preaching and building up churches, in what was then a comparatively new country. In 1845, he moved from Indiana to Kentucky, and accepted a call to the First Baptist church in Lexington. He labored as pastor of this church, seventeen years, resigning in 1862. After this, he moved to Louisville, and, in addition to discharging the duties of Corresponding Secretary of the General Association, supplied the pulpit of Bank Street church, in New Albany, and, afterwards, at different times, those of Broadway and Walnut street churches in Louisville. In 1871, he took charge of the church in Shelbyville, where he ministered several years. Subsequently, he moved to Lexington, where he now resides. He is still (1885) actively engaged in the ministry.
Dr. Pratt is not only an excellent preacher and pastor, but he is also a superior business man. He has been a prominent actor in the benevolent enterprises of the Kentucky Baptists, and has rendered invaluable service to the denomination, in the various capacities, in which he has served it.[From J. H. Spencer, A History of Kentucky Baptists, Vol. 2, 1886; rpt. pp. 40-41, 1984.]
end quote
Ernie
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If ever there were any who deserved a pox upon their houses, surely ’twere the men who dealt in their own kind, be they never so refined in social graces.
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Thanks again, Ernie. The University of Kentucky has 5 volumes of Dr. Pratt’s diaries in their Special Collections and yet, for some reason, Dr. Clark doesn’t list the diaries in his bibliography. I would have thought he’d have gone to a primary source but maybe he was just listing books he thought the general reader would be likely to find.
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