There can be no doubt that the worldly Jordan, among others in Lexington's black community, took on the responsibility of shaping the youngest members to be productive citizens who would not only cherish freedom and equality but also honor the memory of those long passed and their dreams of freedom. Given the limited opportunities in Lexington and the obstacles set up by whites, African American leaders invested their energies in uplifting the race through spiritual guidance and fellowship, in addition to strongly promoting their children's education and teaching them the virtuous qualities of hard work, morality, and temperance. Indeed, the freedmen recognized that their hopes and dreams for a fairer, more just, and more prosperous future could be achieved only by investing in themselves and their children. The individual and collective destiny of all black people was inextricably linked to inspiring a sense of purpose in the children of the newly emancipated masses. This was achieved through the two most important black institutions in Lexington during Reconstruction: the black church and the freedmen's schools.
Regardless of the community's overarching plan for the future of black Kentuckians, America Murphy had to be the primary wage earner, caregiver, and protector of her family. Needing to find gainful employment, she would have ventured out into the city in search of a job, likely leaving her children under the watchful eye of Cora Jordan. America may have knocked at the back doors of the homes of wealthy and middle-class whites; stood on the steps of the county courthouse at Cheapside, waiting to be asked to clean; or walked the streets and alleys of Lexington in search of some way to provide for her children and herself. Frequently, black women without the protection of husbands or other men were forced into prostitution. Whether America succumbed to that pressure is unknown, but the possibility exists.
By 1868, America Murphy was listed on the roster of potential taxpaying adults living in Lexington. However, with no firm address established, she probably remained with the Jordan family until the spring of 1869 while she adjusted to urban life and sought suitable housing. Sadly, America's daughter, whose name has been lost to history, died sometime between the spring of 1868 and the spring of 1869. The youngster likely succumbed to influenza, pneumonia, or diphtheria, the most prevalent causes of childhood death in postbellum Lexington.28
The Way and the Light
An estimated 4 million former slaves were set adrift in American society with the dissolution of the institution of slavery. These individuals, most without skills, education, or economic power, depended on the government and numerous benevolent societies to help them find their way in a world that was frightening yet filled with possibility. In less than five years, blacks had gone from being human chattel to citizens, and they were on the verge of getting the right to vote. Although a majority of former slaves had a basic understanding of what freedom meant in terms of being able to move about the countryside, most needed help in making the mental, physical, and spiritual transformation required to become self-sufficient. They needed direction and leadership, which had to come from within the black community if freedom were to be established and experienced as a natural phenomenon.
By 1866, conditions were ripe for African Americans throughout the South to satisfy their desire to be acknowledged as full-fledged human beings. For generations, the institution of slavery and the brutal conditions of servitude had combined to produce a mythic notion of freedom tied to the biblical promised land—an imagined place looming somewhere north, just over the horizon. Although an estimated 100,000 blacks were liberated by the Underground Railroad between 1850 and 1860, and thousands more escaped through other means, those enslaved blacks left behind understood that the dream of physical freedom was not easily realized. To run away was, in essence, to steal another man's property. The consequences of being caught were too great for most to attempt to escape. For a majority of blacks who lived in the South, this kind of freedom did not arrive until Federal soldiers in Union blue marched past their farms and into Southern towns and cities, leaving scores of liberated blacks in their wake. Others claimed their physical freedom after the Emancipation Proclamation was read to them from the porches of their masters' homes by Federal officers seeking to secure the former slaves' loyalty in an effort to unravel the Confederacy from within. Still others recognized they were free only when word spread that General Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox after his “rebs” were defeated by colored soldiers outside Richmond. In this way, freedom was connected to a corporeal reality that required the individual's physical removal from the institution of slavery by force or by legal means.
To say that this was the only sort of freedom for the enslaved is to ignore their most influential form of resistance. Grounded in traditions brought from Africa, and expanded with the adoption of Christianity in North America, religion encouraged a spiritual freedom that was easily hidden from whites.29 Slave preachers often held secret meetings on the farms and plantations of the South to discuss African Americans' purpose in the world and what the future might hold. Christianity was regarded as a form of redemption whose “great moral and religious principles…lie at the base of an elevated and sound moral” society.30 Indeed, it was their sense of spiritual freedom that prepared African Americans for emancipation, which they attributed to their prayers, their patience, and, of course, the will of God. This ability to elevate themselves above their physical limitations and therefore resist their masters' authority had long been an integral part of black life in the South. Nevertheless, at the core of this spiritual freedom was African Americans' ability to organize themselves into an effective body politic capable of undermining their masters' control over how or what they thought. This underground or invisible network of people actively involved in “building and fortifying community life” empowered black men and women to take leadership roles.31
By the beginning of Reconstruction, organizing their communities into cohesive units that could respond to external challenges and the needs of their members became a priority for black leaders. Like the government officials directly connected to the Freedmen's Bureau, African Americans recognized that economic, social, and political chaos was sure to accompany the migration of former slaves from rural areas of the South and border states like Kentucky and Missouri to urban and semiurban locales near their former homes. African American religious leaders also recognized the need for a structured transition to guarantee that freedom was not temporary. Black leaders fully understood what was at stake for former slaves and the future of the race, and they strategically planned how to become contributing members of society based on religious values, republican concepts of life and liberty, and hard work.
Against this backdrop, the black church emerged as a force in the state of Kentucky. Its ministers and its members were critical participants in the overall program to educate former slaves and their children, while advancing new ideas about the value and place of blacks in American society. In Lexington the black church was the primary gateway to freedom, education, equality, and opportunity for African Americans, especially the children, most of whom had been born into slavery. Through the church's guidance and leadership, these children developed into exceptional examples of manhood and womanhood. During the latter part of the nineteenth century, the roster of successful black Lexingtonians included doctors, lawyers, businessmen and -women, politicians, ministers, horse farm owners, horse trainers, and, of course, jockeys.
Kentucky's first all-black church was founded in 1785 by Peter Duerett, a slave from Virginia who was known as “Old Captain.” Duerett's First African Baptist Church was established in Lexington on land owned by pioneer John Maxwell, who apparently believed that slaves should be allowed to worship as they pleased, especially if it provided order and discipline to an inferior caste of people.32 The population of enslaved African Americans increased in the Bluegrass between 1800 and 1820, and by the time Old Captain died in 1823, the African Baptist Church had more than 300 members. Most of these were slaves, but church members also incl
uded the handful of free blacks living in Lexington, such as Samuel Oldham, Rolley Blue, William Gist, Solomon Walker, and Jason Bullock.33 These men were church trustees and the leaders blacks turned to in times of need. As odd as it sounds, Lexington's free and enslaved black population created a world where they could function with some sense of normalcy. The black church nurtured this sense of community and became the center of this stability.
After the passing of Duerett and some controversy over the church's direction and its future leadership, the membership asked London Ferrill, a well-known and respected free black preacher, to take over the pastorate of First African Baptist Church. Ferrill, hoping to elevate the church's current status as an unrecognized assemblage of slaves and free blacks, petitioned the Elkhorn Baptist Association for membership. The white association refused to acknowledge the all-black church until it had been firmly established that Ferrill was ordained and endorsed by the community's most prominent white citizens. After a series of closed meetings and petitions supporting the new preacher, Ferrill assumed leadership of the congregation in 1824 and proceeded to increase its membership through mass baptisms of urban-dwelling slaves and free blacks.34 Although Ferrill was readily accepted by most of the Lexington community, jealousy seems to have played a role in Harry Quills's attack on the preacher. Quills tried to have Ferrill, a Virginia native, removed from his pastoral duties and from Kentucky, arguing that no free colored man born outside the state could stay for more than thirty days. Lexington's white community, including livery stable owner Jeremiah Murphy, signed a petition that granted Ferrill the right to come and go as he pleased.35
Over the course of his thirty-two years as head of First African Baptist Church, Ferrill baptized more than 5,000 black folks seeking deliverance from their worldly pains. There can be no doubt that Ferrill's guidance provided his congregation with the hope they needed to withstand the machinations of slavery on a daily basis. Trusted by the white patriarchs of Lexington not to inflame animosities between blacks and whites, Ferrill was allowed some flexibility in his teaching and preaching. In keeping with the Christian tradition and public ritual of marriage to validate a couple's commitment to each other in full view of their community and in the eyes of God, Ferrill performed marriages between enslaved men and women, pronouncing them joined “until death or distance did them apart.”36
At the height of his popularity, Ferrill became an exemplar of selflessness, resolve, and leadership when Lexington was hit by an outbreak of cholera in 1833. Along with white Lexingtonians General Leslie Combs, William Solomon, Benjamin Gratz, John Keizer, and others, Ferrill acted heroically, caring for the sick and dying and burying the dead at the risk of his own life.37 Unfortunately, Ferrill's wife was one of the 500 Lexingtonians to die in the epidemic, out of a population of little more than 6,000.38 Ferrill's commitment to the community during this time of great turmoil won the hearts and loyalties of many of Lexington's elite.
While Ferrill was building the First African Baptist Church into a revered religious organization, its membership ebbed and flowed according to the internal politics of the church, the in-migration of new slaves and their denominational beliefs, and the desire of some individuals to establish and lead their own separate churches. By the beginning of Reconstruction, Lexington had six black churches, many of which had spun off from Old Captain's original congregation. These churches were Pleasant Green Baptist, Independent Baptist, First African Baptist, a Methodist Episcopalian church, a Christian church, and an African Methodist Episcopalian (AME) church. Because Baptists made up a majority of the population, they had the greatest influence on the institutions connected with freedom, especially education.
In August 1865, four months before slavery was officially abolished in Kentucky, the State Convention of Colored Baptists was created under the guidance of Henry Adams, pastor of Louisville's Fifth Street Baptist Church. Adams had been responsible for growing the black membership in the white First Baptist Church in Louisville, and he had led a movement to create a separate place of worship for blacks, helping to establish the Colored Baptist Church in Louisville, with 475 members, in 1842.39 The 1865 convention brought together prominent black church leaders from central Kentucky to plan a strategy for collective growth and stability for the freedmen pouring into cities such as Lexington and Louisville. Some of these former slaves were running from terrorist activities in the rural parts of the state, where they received no protection from the law.40
After several days of meetings and deliberations, the convention attendees formalized a constitution and formed committees dedicated to developing a program of free education throughout Kentucky, increasing membership, and expanding the faith. These organizational efforts of the black church in Kentucky were furthered by members of the various congregations and benevolent societies, who were committed to educating former slaves and free blacks. For the Reverend James Monroe, who had taken over leadership of the First African Baptist Church in 1862, the education of black children was essential to the success of the great experiment of emancipation. What is more, Reverend Monroe demanded that black children in Lexington receive the education they deserved in order to fulfill their destinies as learned, informed, and God-fearing citizens who could lead their community in the future.
In 1867 Reverend Monroe and his Lexington congregation hosted the annual General Association of Colored Baptists convention, where the delegates' primary concerns were the continued and future education of ministers and the development of schools for children. Monroe had already begun his work against the challenging climate of Reconstruction, especially the fact that whites viewed the education of blacks as detrimental to their power over former slaves and an affront to traditional ideas of American citizenship. Increasingly, the church's role as the center of spiritual and rudimentary education evolved to include strong political activism, whereby religious leaders used their collective voices and connections to the powerful white elite to challenge legislative rulings against African Americans. Nevertheless, during Reconstruction, the education and welfare of black children remained the priority for black ministers throughout Kentucky.
“With Labor and Education for Your Motto”
The resilience of black Kentuckians had been forged in the fires of slavery, poverty, and degradation. They emerged from their subjugation hungry for the opportunity to prove their worthiness of all the rights and privileges of full citizenship. Although denied access to the franchise, African American leaders such as Frederick Douglass, Martin Delany, and John Mercer Langston continued to argue for the civil and political rights of black people. Not only had “colored” soldiers served, fought, and died in the Civil War to preserve the Union; black people had been at the very core of the nation's success and deserved their freedom based on merit. In other words, freedom was their birthright; it had been paid for by the labors of their forebears and their own efforts on behalf of their unyielding masters. What is more, black leaders understood that education was central to a true sense of freedom and the key to a full understanding of democracy. Education prepared the individual to participate in society as an enlightened and informed citizen capable of making erudite decisions, thereby gaining access to the social mobility and political power indicative of a successful community.41
At the beginning of Reconstruction, schools across the state of Kentucky were established in and by African American communities long before the Freedmen's Bureau, the American Missionary Association, and other benevolent societies stepped in to help former slaves learn to read and write. Through collaborative efforts, freedmen and -women raised the necessary funds to purchase land for schools, pay teachers, and buy books. Clearly, African Americans understood that education and literacy were tied to black destiny and black power. To fulfill the deafening demand for education, many church-based schools allowed both children and adults to attend. Indeed, a number of the facilities offered day schools for children and night schools for adults, as well as Sabbath schoo
ls for moral and religious education.
During slavery, African Americans recognized that knowledge was power, but by Reconstruction through the political process, they came to realize that book knowledge was empowering. While day schools groomed and prepared African American children to enter a world where their intellect and work ethic would take them far, night schools taught adults to be knowledgeable and politically active participants in the American system of democracy capitalism. Education was deemed such a necessity that when work became difficult to find in Lexington, African Americans went back into the fields of their former masters to earn enough money to pay for their children's tuition and books and for teachers' salaries. Black Kentuckians certainly took seriously the possibilities offered by Reconstruction, especially in terms of advancing their children and gaining the franchise.42 In Lexington, the African American community was a strong supporter of education and used its limited resources to open schools in the most important centers of black social activity: the church.
In April 1865, before the Freedmen's Bureau was organized, dozens of religious organizations, benevolent societies, and independent philanthropists provided funding and materials to organize day schools in homes and churches. These initial piecemeal efforts were supported by community fund-raising and directed by ministers and church trustees. In the same month the Freedmen's Bureau began operation, one of Lexington's first schools for black children was opened at the First African Baptist Church under the supervision of the Reverend James Monroe. There were sixty pupils, and each one had a spelling book and a story book for lessons.43 In May the Reverend Edward P. Smith, a representative of the American Missionary Association (AMA), visited Lexington to survey the needs of the freedmen and their children. Smith observed that the First African Baptist Church had one of five schools operating in the city and charging tuition of $1.25 per month for each child.44 Thus, for a majority of families, including those of black Civil War veterans, school was not an affordable endeavor. To pay for their children's education, parents had to raise money from outside the community due to overpopulation in the city, which led to a shortage of jobs.
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