Samuel Shepard #2

On the question that I raised on Thursday concerning the possibilities for escape available to African-American slaves on the frontier, Ellen Eslinger once again finds Samuel Shepard’s journals useful. In her article “The Shape of Slavery on the Kentucky Frontier 1775-1800″ (Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 1994;92:1-23), Eslinger states :

The racial attitudes of Amerindians towards blacks is insufficiently understood. Blacks in early Kentucky were somewhat more likely captured than killed, but their unarmed condition probably carried more importance than their skin color. Clearly, black casualties occurred. Settler Samuel Shepard of Georgetown, for example, noted in his diary several local incidents involving slaves. On June 1, 1788, Shepard noted that “a Young Man named George Gibson was killed and a Negro taken by the Indians about one mile from where I was at work in the wood.” A year later, on August 9, 1789, “The Indians killed two Negro children this day near the Crossings meeting house . . . and wounded two large ones who survived.” On August 29, 1792, Shepard commented on “considerable mischief” by Indians in the last two days. Four men were dead, five slaves captured, and one Indian killed by a white woman. A pursuit party retook the slaves and killed one more Indian. Shepard’s journal indicates that slaves had just as much cause for fear as did their white owners. [p.16]

And, of course, no choice about being placed in that danger.

This entry also speaks to the fact that the danger from Native American resistance persisted for some time after the Revolutionary War ended.

Eslinger continues:

One response to the danger was training in the use of firearms. An inhabitant stated that during the siege of Boonesborough in 1778, when London was killed, “arms & ammunition were given to the negro men.” The absence of any additional explanation suggests that this was not an extraordinary practice during crisis situations and, further, that black men had experience with firearms even if they did not normally possess them. At least some frontier slaves handled guns routinely. An early white pioneer named William McBride, for example, told of “Old” Joseph Gray, an early settler near modern Nashville. Gray made his settlement “with his negroes alone, whom he armed.” [Ed. note: Sounds like Faulkner's Sutpen.] According to this informant, Gray was attacked once and the slaves “made good soldiers.” One of them, a slave named Chick, was described as a “good woodsman.” A few western slaves received their freedom on the basis of heroic action. [p.17].